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PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Delavan  L.  Pierson 


BV  3427  .Al  M5  1903 
Miner,  Luella,  1861-1935 
China's  book  of  martyrs 


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CHINA'S 
BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 


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A  RECORD  OF 

Heroic   Martyrdoms  and  Marvelous 

Deliverances  of  Chinese  Christians 

During  the  Summer  of   1900 


BY 


LUELLA   MINER 

Author  of  "Two  Heroes  of  Cathay" 


PHILADELPHIA: 

THE   WESTMINSTER   PRESS 

1903 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
LUELLA  MINER 


^cDicatton 

TO  THOSE  WHO  IN  THE  SUMMER  OF  1900 

WAITED  IN  AGONIZED  SUSPENSE 

FOR  TIDINGS  OF  LOVED  ONES  IN  CHINA, 

THIS  VOLUME 

IS  DEDICATED  IN  TENDER  SYMPATHY 


The  sacrifice  was  not  in  vain — their  sacrifice  and 
yours.  He  who  does  not  afflict  willingly,  who  makes 
all  things  work  together  for  good,  has  taken  the 
sufferings  of  those  months  into  his  almighty  hand  of 
love,  and  will  transform  them  into  precious  stones, 
building  them  into  his  beautiful  temple.  He  who 
was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself, 
was  also  in  the  martyrs,  reconciling  to  himself  that 
great  empire  across  the  ^ea. 

It  is  to  assist  in  the  conviction  that  the  sacrifice 
was  not  in  vain — that  China  is  worth  saving,  and 
can  be  saved — that  these  records  of  fidelity  are  sent 
forth. 


PREFACE 

TiiK  following  pages  do  not  tell  in  full  the  story  of 
the  faithful  witnesses  of  China.     That  would  require 
volumes.     Many   narratives   have   been   rejected,   not 
because  they  were  not  of  intense  interest,  but  because 
one  book  would  not  contain  them  all.    Those  selected 
are   representative   and   typical.     The   experiences   of 
Christians  belonging  to  ten  different  denominations  are 
recorded,  but  the  space  given  to  the  annals  of  different 
missions  by  no  means  indicates  their  relative  impor- 
tance. Some  societies  have  already  published  their  own 
histories  of  the  tragedy,  or  are  preparing  for  such  pub- 
lications, and  so  have  furnished  little  material  for  this 
book.     Other  societies  have  not  been  directly  solicited 
for  narratives  of  the  experiences  of  their  members,  but 
extracts  have  been  taken  from  their  periodicals.    Where 
the  extract  is  of  great  length  or  importance,  permission 
has  been  obtained  for  its  use ;  in  other  cases,  acknowl- 
edgment  accompanies   the   quotation.     In   a   few   m- 
stances  ignorance  of  the  source  or  authorship  of  an 
account  given  has  made  acknowledgment  impossible; 
but  the  author  desires  here  to  express  her  thanks  for 
such  involuntary  contributions. 

A  large  part  of  the  book  is  filled  with  narratives  to 
which  the  author  listened  during  the  siege  of  Peking 
and  the  ensuing  year  of  residence  in  that  city. 

We  acknowledge  our  deep  indebtedness  to  Rev. 
Courtenay  H.  Fenn,  of  the  Presbyterian  Board.  This 
book  was  to  have  been  a  work  of  collaboration,  and 

5 


6  PREFACE 

we  greatly  regret  that  the  pressure  of  other  duties 
compelled  Mr.  Fenn  to  resign  his  part  of  the  work  into 
our  hands.  The  introductory  chapter  was  written  by 
Mr.  Fenn  when  it  was  hoped  that  the  original  plan 
could  be  carried  out,  and  has  been  only  slightly 
changed.  For  valuable  suggestions  as  to  the  general 
plan  and  scope  of  the  book  we  also  express  our  thanks, 
and  for  a  great  amount  of  valuable  material  collected 
by  Mr.  Fenn  from  various  sources. 

Miss  Nellie  N.  Russell,  of  Peking,  has  contributed 
Largely  to  these  pages,  not  only  by  furnishing  most 
interesting  narratives,  which  are  given  under  her  name, 
but  by  giving  brief  incidents  with  which  her  name  is 
not  connected. 

Many  of  the  narratives  translated  from  the  Chinese 
by  the  author  were  taken  from  a  collection  made  by 
Pastor  Jen,  of  the  American  Board  Mission. 

We  would  also  acknowledge  our  obligation  to  the 
following  persons :  Dr.  Eliza  E.  Leonard,  Miss  Grace 
Newton,  Rev.  C.  W.  Mateer,  D.  D. ;  Miss  Georgianna 
Smith,  Rev.  D.  MacGillivray,  Miss  Annie  H.  Gowans, 
Dr.  I.  J.  Atwood,  Mrs.  A.  M.  Williams,  Rev.  George 
D.  Wilder,  and  Rev.  Chauncey  Goodrich,  D.  D.  To 
the  latter  our  thanks  are  due  for  reading  much  of  the 
manuscript  for  the  book,  and  assisting  in  the  selection 
of  material.  We  are  also  indebted  to  Rev.  Judson 
Smith,  D.  D.,  for  invaluable  assistance  in  arranging 
for  publication. 

Many  of  the  photographs  used  as  illustrations  were 
taken  by  Dr.  A.  P.  Peck. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

Introduction, 13 

I.    The  Preparation  for  the  Trial,          ...  31 

II.    The  Christians  in  the  Siege  of  Peking,          -        -  46 

Part  i.  A  Chinese  Girl's  Story  of  the  Siege.    II.  The 
"Work  of  the  Christians.    III.   Christians  as  Messengers. 

III.  The  Loyalty  of  the  Christians  to  their  Foreign 

Friends, 97 

IV.  China's  Eleventh  Chapter  of  Hebrews,      -        -  142 
V.   The  Faithful  unto  Death, 171 

VI.   The  Living  Witnesses, 197 

VII.    Martyr    Days    in    Peking   and   the    Surrounding 

Country, 233 

VIII.    Martyr  Days  in  T'ungchou,          .        .        .        .  294 

IX.    Martyr  Days  in  Pao  Ting  Fu,           .        .        .        .  355 

X.    Martyr  Days  in  Scattered  Localities,       -        -  392 

XI.    Martyr  Days  in  Shansi, 422 

XII.    In  Memoriam, 487 

XIIL   Outlook  and  Uplook, 505 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Ruins  of  Chapel,  Pao  Ting  Fu, 


Gateway  of  Prince  Su's  Palace, 

Ruins  of  Prince  Su's  Palace, 

TsiN  Ming  at  Loophole  in  the  Wall  of  Palace, 

Top  of  City  Wall,  Peking, 

Beggar  Boy  and  Student  as  Messengers,   - 

Fay  Chi  Ho  and  Pupils, 

Chen  Yu,  His  Older  Brother,  and  K'ung  Hsiang 
Li  Te  Kuei  and  Family,  and  Shu  Ch'eng, 

Temple  at  Young  Le  Tien, 

Mrs.  Li  Penken,  Mrs.  Li  Shou  Jen,  and  Miss  Li,  - 

Tientsin  Li,  -        -        - 

Ta  Wen  Fu  and  His  Cousin  Kung  Ming  Te,    - 
Ta  Wen  Fu,  His  Two  Uncles  and  Their  Families, 
Pastor  Teng  and  Family,  -        ,  -        . 

Prince  Su  and  Attendants,  .... 

Idols  in  Prince  Chuang's  Palace, 

In  Prince  Chuang's  Palace:  Kneeling 
for  Trial, 

In  Prince  Chuang's  Palace  :  Ground 

Strewn  with  Bones  of  Christians, 
North  China  College, 
Kao  Hsin  and  Family, 

Ts'Ao  Tso  Lin, 

Ruins  of  T'ung  Chou, 


Frontispiece 

facing  page 

-  54 
60 

-  66 

74 

-    -   78 

114 

136 
172 
178 
198 
216 
240 
244 
260 
266 


Hsi, 


278 


294 
316 
328 
334 


lo  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

facing  page 

Shu  Ch'eng  and  Shu  Chi,    -------  338 

Chang  Ch'ing  Hsiang,        -        -        -        -    •     -        -        -  356 

Meng  Ti-to, 372 

Fort  Near  Viceroy's  Yamen,  Tientsin,    -        -        -        -  414 

Mission  Chapel,  Tax  Yuan  Fu,     ------  422 

Taiku,  Looking  East,        .---..-  448 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sang, 470 

Graves  of  Martyrs  in  Taiku  Cemetery,         -        -        -  490 

Memorial  Scroll  to  Martyrs,  Peking,       -        -        .        .  492 

Memorial  Services,  Pao  Ting  Fu, 498 

Booth  Containing  Coffins  of  Martyred  Dead,          -        -  500 

Graves  of  Martyrs  at  Pao  Ting  Fu,       .        .        .        -  502 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 


INTRODUCTORY 

A  NEW  "Book  of  Martyrs"  at  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century — how  inappropriate  it  seems!  The 
days  of  Nero  and  Diocletian,  of  the  Reformation  and 
the  Inquisition, — those  were  the  days  when  blood  ran 
in  the  streets,  beasts  roared  in  the  arena,  and  the  auto- 
da-fe  blazed  in  the  public  square.  We  have  read  with 
a  sickening  horror,  yet  with  a  glowing  inspiration,  the 
tales  of  faith  and  heroism;  and  have  rejoiced  in  the 
thought  that  these  things  are  records  of  a  bygone  age, 
that  we  live  in  a  time  when  men  have  ceased  to  perse- 
cute the  prophets,  and  stone  those  who  preach  against 
their  corruptions  and  point  the  way  to  better  thinking 
and  holier  living. 

And  the  thought  has,  perhaps,  come  to  us  at  times, 
it  is  well  that  God  does  not  thus  test  his  people  in  this 
age.  The  early  Christians  and  the  reformers  were 
made  of  firmer  stuff  than  we,  and  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  the  modern  Church  could  endure  such  fiery 
trials.  We  have  heard  occasionally  of  the  missionary 
who  has  gone  to  some  savage  race,  and  has  been  killed, 
because,  failing  to  appreciate  the  unselfish  love  which 
brought  him  there,  they  have  suspected  him  of  sinister 
designs,  or  fretted  under  the  constant  protest  of  his 
holy  life  and  precepts  against  the  abominations  of  their 
superstition  and  wickedness.  And  the  Church  has  ex- 
pected of  the  missionary  that  he  will  be  faithful  unto 
death.  Occasional  martyrs  we  have  had,  throughout 
the  history  of  Christian  missions,    A  few  even  of  those 

13 


14  INTRODUCTORY 

who  have  been  won  from  darkness  to  light  have  been 
slain  by  their  own  countrymen ;  but  cases  of  this  kind 
have  been  so  few  as  to  make  only  a  momentary  stir  in 
the  hearts  of  those  who  are  on  the  watch  for  the  signs 
of  the  development  of  the  kingdom. 

The  generally-prevailing  opinion  of  the  native  con- 
vert from  the  religions  of  the  East  has  been  very  low 
indeed.  Even  among  the  members  of  the  Christian 
Church  there  has  been  a  lurking  suspicion  that^  while 
there  might  be  some  marked  exceptions,  the  Oriental 
Christian  is  far  from  being  an  ornament  to  the  Church 
of  which  he  is  a  member ;  that  while  he  may  have  suffi- 
cient faith  in  Christ  to  save  his  soul,  he  has  not  yet 
adopted  many  of  the  principles  of  Christian  morality, 
and  can  not  be  trusted  much  farther  than  he  can  be 
seen.  Indeed,  but  recently  an  active  Christian  woman 
was  heard  to  say  of  the  Chinese,  what  used  to  be  said 
so  unjustly  of  the  North  American  Indian,  "The  only 
good  Chinaman  is  a  dead  Chinaman !" 

With  such  an  opinion  prevailing  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  in  the  Church,  it  was  not  strange  that  the 
world  should  include  Chinese,  East  Indian,  Japanese, 
African,  and  every  other  convert  from  heathenism  or 
paganism,  under  the  one  term,  *'Rice  Christians ;"  that 
is,  those  who  profess  conversion  to  Christianity  for  the 
sake  of  securing  employment  and  making  money,  but 
with  no  change  of  life  or  heart.  This  sweeping  gen- 
eralization, like  most  of  its  sort,  was  not  without  some 
foundation.  The  members  of  the  foreign  communities 
in  the  cities  of  the  Orient,  engaged  in  commercial  en- 
terprise, are  brought  into  contact  with  the  basest  ele- 
ments of  the  population,  who  often  profess  to  be  Chris- 
tians for  the  purpose  of  securing  employment,  then 
systematically  cheat  their  employers  in  all  their  deal- 
ings.    So  barefaced  is  this  spoiling  of  the  foreigner 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

by  the  native  that  it  is  apparent  even  to  the  employer, 
is  winked  at  by  him  for  the  sake  of  good  service,  but 
is  reported  to  the  next  visiting  sightseer  as  the  typical 
behavior  of  the  Oriental  Christians.  Thus  the  report 
goes  home,  and  the  multitude  is  confirmed  in  its  old 
opinion  that  foreign  missions  do  not  pay,  because  you 
can  not  make  a  good  Christian  out  of  an  Oriental. 

If  the  native  convert  could  not  be  trusted  to  cease 
to  do  evil  and  learn  to  do  well,  surely  the  hold  which 
the  new  religion  had  gained  upon  him  could  not  be 
very  strong.  He  might  continue  to  profess  Christianity 
so  long  as  it  was  the  way  to  wealth ;  but  surely,  when 
persecution  and  affliction  should  arise  because  of  this 
profession,  the  man  would  be  offended  and  his  mask 
must  fall  off. 

Such  was  the  opinion  of  a  large  part  of  the  world, 
and  in  some  quarters  it  was  repeated  in  a  tone  almost 
as  maliciously  triumphant  as  that  in  which  Satan  sneer- 
ingly  challenged  the  Almighty:  ''Doth  Job  fear  God 
for  naught?  Hast  not  thou  made  a  hedge  about  him, 
and  about  his  house,  and  about  all  that  he  hath, 
on  every  side?  Thou  hast  blessed  the  work  of  his 
hands,  and  his  substance  is  increased  in  the  land.  But 
put  forth  thy  hand  now,  and  touch  all  that  he  hath, 
and  he  will  renounce  thee  to  thy  face."  And,  as  in 
the  days  of  Job,  the  Almighty  accepted  the  challenge, 
and  gave  tens  of  thousands  of  the  converts  of  China 
over  into  the  power  of  Satan  for  a  season,  to  be  tried 
by  every  form  of  affliction,  and  by  their  fidelity  and 
steadfastness  to  silence  forever  the  false,  cruel  charge 
that  they  were  ''Rice  Christians."  Satan  spoke  truth 
for  himself  and  his  followers  when  he  said,  "All  that 
a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life ;"  for  they  have  no 
knowledge  of  that  love  which  makes  a  man  count  all 
things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge 


i6  INTRODUCTORY 

of  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  for  whom  he  will  suffer  the 
loss  of  all  things,  and  count  them  but  refuse  that  he 
may  gain  Christ  and  be  found  in  him. 

It  was  given  to  the  Chinese  not  only  to  believe  on 
Christ,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake,  during  that 
fearful  uprising  of  the  Boxers  which  took  place  in  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1900.  Protestant  and  Roman 
Catholic  alike  suffered,  and  the  grand  total  of  mur- 
dered Church  members  and  adherents  is  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  thirty  thousand.  While  many  of  these  were 
ruthlessly  cut  down,  without  even  an  opportunity  to 
save  their  lives  by  recantation,  yet  thousands  of  them 
faced  entreaty,  promise,  threat,  and  torture,  and  to 
the  death  refused  to  deny  their  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
or  to  offer  worship  to  the  images  in  the  home  or 
the  temple.  The  lives,  the  sufferings,  the  martyr- 
doms of  the  foreign  missionaries  who  fell  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  China,  and  the  thrilling  experiences 
and  marvelous  escapes  of  those  who  were  saved, 
have  been  published  in  detail.  The  Church  has 
been  stirred  as  never  before  in  modern  times,  and 
has  heard  in  this  record  the  call  of  God  to  more 
strenuous  and  devoted  effort  to  redeem  the  lands 
thus  purchased  by  blood  and  suffering.  We  now  add 
to  these  records  of  heroic  devotion  and  of  wonderful 
providences,  more  numerous  and  extended  narratives 
of  the  sufferings  and  deliverances  of  the  native  Church 
than  have  yet  been  published,  glorying  in  their  testi- 
mony to  the  transforming  power  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  to  the  value  and  success  of  foreign 
missions. 

It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  book  to  present  any 
detailed  account  of  the  Boxer  movement,  as  it  has  al- 
ready received  full  attention  in  other  works  issued 
within  the  past  tv^ro  years,  notably  "China  in  Convul- 


INTRODUCTORY  17 

sion,"  by  the  Rev.  Arthur  H.  vSmith,  D.  D.  It  will 
suffice  for  our  purpose  simply  to  sum  up  in  a  few  words 
the  various  influences  which  combined  to  produce  the 
uprising  of  1900. 

The  movement  was  unquestionably  far  more  polit- 
ical than  religious.  It  was  primarily  anti-foreign,  and 
only  secondarily  anti-Christian  and  anti-missionary. 
Had  missionaries  and  Christianity  been  the  only  im- 
ports of  the  foreigner  into  China,  or  had  the  religions 
of  China  been  the  only  commodity  which  he  had  at- 
tempted to  take  away,  there  might  have  been  no  serious 
trouble.  While  we  do  not  deny  that  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  produces  a  social  revolution,  which  may 
have  also  its  political  phases,  and  that  it  does  at  times 
set  men  at  enmity  with  the  members  of  their  own 
families  as  well  as  with  those  of  their  own  communities, 
yet  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  phrases  in  which  the  hos- 
tile Chinese,  as  individuals  and  as  societies,  set  forth 
their  purpose  of  destruction  against  foreigner  and  na- 
tive, all  declare  their  hatred  to  be  caused  by  their 
political  affiliations,  rather  than  by  their  religious  belief. 
Their  war-cry  was,  'Xi  kuo  mieh  yang"  (Establish 
the  empire  by  the  extermination  of  the  foreign).  Their 
chief  charge  against  the  convert  was,  **T'a  sui  wai  kuo" 
(He  follows  foreign  countries).  The  foreigner  was  to 
them  the  ''yang  kuei-tzu"  (foreign  devil),  or  "y^"? 
mao-tzu"  (foreign  hairy  one)  ;  the  native  Christian  was 
**erh  mao-tzu"  (secondary  hairy  one),  a  foreigner  of 
the  second  order.  The  oft-repeated  cry,  ''Sha  erh  mao- 
tzu"  should  never  be  translated  "Kill  the  Christians!" 
for  there  is  in  it  no  allusion  to  religious  faith.  It  was 
applied  to  the  man  who  ironed  a  foreigner's  shirt,  or 
helped  him  survey  a  railroad,  or  served  as  his  teacher, 
though  he  might  be  a  Buddhist  of  the  Buddhists,  a 
Confucianist   of   the   Confucianists.      The   servant   or 


i8  INTRODUCTORY 

official  who  had  rendered  some  slight  service  or  shown 
a  slight  degree  of  friendliness  to  the  foreigner  was 
often  called,  '*San  mao-tzu"  (foreigner  of  the  third 
order). 

That  no  missionary  ever  perverted  justice  in  the 
name  of  securing  justice  for  his  converts  has  never  been 
claimed.  Occasionally  a  Protestant  has  unwittingly 
been  led  into  interference  in  native  lawsuits,  with  which 
it  would  have  been  better  to  have  nothing  to  do.  And 
more  frequently  have  the  Roman  Catholics  made  use  of 
foreign  influence  to  secure  their  converts  immunity 
from  defeat  in  legal  proceedings.  But  all  these  things 
have  been  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket  as  compared  with 
the  political  and  commercial  aggressions  by  foreign 
powers,  which  threatened  to  rend  China  limb  from 
limb,  to  destroy  the  means  of  livelihood  of  her  citizens, 
and  to  turn  her  whole  commerce  into  the  hands  of 
other  peoples.  Her  eyes  not  yet  being  opened  to  the 
benefits  of  Western  civilization,  and  being,  therefore, 
unprepared  to  accept  and  assimilate  the  innovations 
which  were  coming  in  like  a  flood,  China  was  alto- 
gether unwilling,  on  the  other  hand,  to  fall  supinely 
before  the  inundation.  The  emperor  and  a  few  asso- 
ciates, with  clearer  vision  as  to  the  condition  and  needs 
of  the  empire,  threw  themselves  into  one  heroic  effort 
to  direct  and  use  the  inflow  of  the  new  ideas,  although 
they  knew  they  must  face  opposition  fierce  and  strong. 
They  fell,  and  over  them  rushed  the  old  regime,  deter- 
mined to  stake  all  on  one  great  struggle,  not  simply 
for  integrity  and  independence,  but  for  the  old  con- 
servative seclusion  once  enjoyed. 

The  Boxers,  a  comprehensive  name,  embracing  both 
the  I  Ho  Ch'uan  (Patriotic  Harmony  Fist)  and  Ta 
Tao    (Big    Knife)    Societies,    seem    to    have   passed 


INTRODUCTORY  19 

through  several  stages  of  development.  Originally  an 
interdicted  society  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  was  re- 
vived as  a  local  organization  in  the  southern  part  of 
Shantung  Province,  nominally  for  the  mutual  protec- 
tion of  the  villages  to  which  its  members  belonged 
against  robbers  and  marauders.  Later  it  received  from 
certain  Buddhist  priests  in  that  region  the  addition  of 
a  religious  phase,  its  leaders  laying  claim  to  such  close 
communion  with  the  world  of  spirits  as  enabled  them 
to  render  themselves  and  their  followers  invulnerable 
to  sword  and  bullet.  The  empress  dowager  and  her 
advisers  and  coadjutors  in  the  reactionary  movements 
of  1898  saw  in  this  rapidly-growing  society  a  means  of 
accomplishing  their  aim.  The  war-cry  of  patriotism, 
the  claim  of  supernatural  powers,  the  promise  of 
spoils, — what  further  was  needed  to  attract  and  inflame 
the  multitude,  who  could  in  no  other  possible  way  have 
been  induced  to  join  themselves  to  the  scurvy  troops 
in  the  effort  to  drive  out  the  foreign  influence  from 
China  ?  The  movement  spread  more  and  more  rapidly, 
during  1899,  over  Western  Shantung  and  the  southern 
portion  of  Chihli,  its  devotees  becoming  ever  bolder 
in  their  attacks  on  the  native  Christians  and  the  for- 
eigners. The  first  clear  demonstration  of  the  collusion 
of  the  Chinese  Government  appeared  when  Yii  Hsien, 
the  governor  of  Shantung,  while  nominally  repressing 
the  movement,  secretly  encouraged  it  with  all  his  power. 
Representation  on  representation  was  made  by  the 
diplomatic  corps  to  the  Imperial  Government,  which 
responded  with  edict  after  edict,  all  nerveless  in  them- 
selves, and  rendered  worse  than  void  by  secret  instruc- 
tions to  disregard  them.  Realizing  too  late  the  trend 
of  these  events,  the  representatives  of  foreign  powers 
insisted  upon  the  total  suppression  of  the  movement, 


20  INTRODUCTORY 

when  it  had  already  practically  taken  possession  of  the 
capital  and  all  the  northern  provinces.  Boxers  were 
practicing  openly  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  and  neither 
local  police  nor  imperial  troops  were  doing  aught  to 
restrain  them.  Foreigners  and  native  Christians  were 
being  insulted  and  threatened  on  the  streets,  and  fugi- 
tives were  coming  from  the  south,  bringing  tales  of 
horrible  massacres  and  widespread  conflagrations.  The 
railroads  leading  from  Peking  to  Tientsin  and  Pao 
Ting  Fu  were  torn  up,  fire  and  slaughter  approached 
the  capital,  and  the  missionaries  gathered  with  many 
native  Christians  in  the  Methodist  mission.  On  the 
13th  of  June  the  Boxer  hordes  broke  loose,  and,  aided  by 
imperial  soldiers,  ransacked  the  city  for  Christians  and 
the  employees  of  the  foreigner,  cut  them  down,  hacked 
them  to  pieces,  threw  their  bodies  on  the  street,  or 
burned  them  in  their  houses.  There  fell  that  night, 
and  on  the  days  that  followed,  hundreds  of  faithful 
Christians,  including  some  of  the  very  choicest  of  the 
Church  in  Peking,  while  a  small  percentage  managed 
to  escape,  and,  earlier  or  later,  to  rejoin  their  friends. 
This  large  measure  of  success  in  Peking  but  stimulated 
the  thirst  for  blood,  while  the  failure  to  reach  those 
who  defended  themselves  in  the  mission  and  legation 
infuriated  the  mobs  to  do  their  worst  in  all  that  region. 
From  the  city  there  went  out  into  the  country  in  all 
directions  fanatical  companies  who  incited  the  local  or- 
ganizations of  Boxers  in  the  villages  to  rise  against 
their  peaceful  Christian  neighbors.  Whole  families  and 
groups  of  families  were  cut  off,  while  those  who  man- 
aged to  escape  the  fire  and  the  sword  fled  to  the  moun- 
tains, many  of  them  to  perish  from  starvation  or  to  be 
hunted  down  and  slain.  Those  to  the  south  of  the  city, 
who  had  been  attacked  before  the  legations  were  be- 
leaguered, had  a  place  of  refuge  with  the  foreigners. 


INTRODUCTORY  21 

but  those  to  the  north  and  east  were  attacked  after  this 
place  of  refui^e  had  been  put  beyond  their  reach,  so  that 
the  loss  of  life  in  these  regions  was  far  greater. 

The  number  of  Christians  at  Pao  Ting  Fu  was 
much  less,  as  only  two  missions  were  at  work  there, 
one  of  them  but  recently  established.  Nevertheless  the 
slaughter  was  frightful,  as  the  missionaries  also  were 
killed,  and  the  natives  had  no  way  of  escape  except  in 
flight,  through  perils  innumerable. 

Peking,  T'ungchou,  and  Pao  Ting  Fu  appear  to 
have  been  the  storm-center.  Although  many  were 
massacred  at  Tientsin,  Kalgan,  Tsun  Hua,  K'ai  Ping 
and  other  parts  of  the  province,  also  in  Manchuria,  the 
proportionate  loss  near  the  national  and  provincial  capi- 
tals was  by  far  the  largest.  The  loss  of  missionary  lives 
in  Shansi  was  greater  than  that  in  all  the  other  prov- 
inces together,  and  in  some  places,  notably  in  Tai  Ku, 
the  slaughter  of  Christians  was  terrible.  The  notorious 
governor,  Yii  Hsien,  transferred  from  Shantung  to 
Shansi,  had  here  a  free  hand  for  the  execution  of  his 
treacherous,  bloodthirsty  designs,  unrestrained  by  the 
presence  of  foreign  marines,  and  with  the  missionaries 
scattered  in  various  cities  of  the  province.  The 
churches  in  Shansi,  Shantung,  and  Honan  suffered  less 
severely.  The  Boxer  movement  was  in  imminent  dan- 
ger of  spreading  over  the  entire  country ;  it  had  taken 
root  as  far  west  and  south  as  Ssuch'uan,  as  the  recent 
outbreaks  in  that  province  prove.  But  through  the 
wise  and  brave  decision  of  the  Central  and  Southern 
viceroys  not  to  promulgate  the  imperial  edict  of  ex- 
termination, these  provinces  were  saved  from  the 
scourge  of  blood  and  fire  which  swept  over  the  North ; 
few  lives  were  lost  and  little  property  was  destroyed. 
To  Yuan  Shih  K'ai,  then  governor  of  Shantung,  and 
Tuan  Fang,  then  governor  of  Shansi,  belongs  especial 


22  INTRODUCTORY 

credit  for  stemming  the  onrushing  tide  of  slaughter 
just  where  its  strength  was  beating  most  fiercely,  and 
not  only  preventing  massacres  in  their  own  provinces, 
but  checking  the  spread  of  the  movement  toward  the 
south  and  west. 

Certain  narratives,  especially  in  Chapter  II,  may 
raise  the  question,  "Had  the  Chinese  Christians  any 
right  to  take  up  arms  against  their  own  government, 
or  to  act  as  spies?  Were  they  patriotic?"  We  reply 
that  the  truest  patriots  in  China  are  the  Christians. 
No  hearts  in  the  empire  were  more  deeply  stirred  by 
the  territorial  aggressions  of  European  powers  than 
were  those  of  students  in  mission  colleges.  So  high  did 
the  feeling  run  in  a  certain  college  at  one  time  that 
it  was  necessary  to  limit  the  number  of  political  topics 
to  be  discussed  in  public  exercises.  When  the  em- 
peror came  to  the  front  with  the  reform  administration 
of  1898,  the  heart  of  every  student  bounded  with  high 
hope.  Never  before  had  such  earnest  prayer  been 
offered  for  China  and  her  ruler.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  hymns  in  Chinese  was  composed  by  En  P'u, 
a  young  man  of  the  London  Mission,  when  he  was 
studying  in  the  theological  seminary  at  T'ungchou.  It 
is  a  cry  to  God  to  pity  China,  to  raise  her  to  her  true 
place  among  the  nations,  to  bring  her  to  her  heritage 
as  a  child  of  God.  Often  large  companies  of  students 
have  sung  it  with  deep  emotion.  Then  came  the  re- 
actionary movement  late  in  1898,  and  the  Boxer  su- 
premacy. To  the  Christians  the  acts  of  those  two 
years  seemed  the  acts  of  usurpers.  In  lifting  their 
hands  against  them  in  self-defense  and  in  defense  of 
innocent  men,  women,  and  children  from  other  lands, 
they  did  not  consider  that  they  were  fighting  against 
their  own  country;  rather  they  were  working  for  her 


INTRODUCTORY  23 

highest  interests.  The  deep  heart-hurt  of  these  patriotic 
Christians  can  hardly  be  imagined. 

In  succeeding  narratives,  while  it  has  not  seemed 
best  to  crowd  the  pages  with  heart-sickening  details 
of  butchery,  neither  is  there  any  attempt  to  conceal 
the  fact  that  cruelty  was  rampant.  Thank  God  that 
lust  was  not  rampant  also,  that  women  were  spared 
what  they  would  have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Turks. 
And  if  any  are  inclined  to  say,  "Henceforth  I  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  a  people  so  cruel  as  the  Chi- 
nese; let  others  send  the  gospel  to  them  if  they  will," 
we  commend  to  such  the  reading  of  incidents  like  the 
following,  which  can  be  found  by  thousands  on  the 
pages  of  Roman,  Spanish,  French,  and  English  history : 

"Richard  Byfield  was  cast  into  prison,  and  endured 
some  whipping,  for  his  adherence  to  the  doctrines 
of  Luther.  The  sufferings  this  man  endured  for  the 
truth  were  so  great  that  it  would  require  a  volume 
to  contain  them.  Sometimes  he  was  shut  up  in  a  dun- 
geon, where  he  was  almost  suft'ocated  by  the  offen- 
sive and  horrid  smell  of  filth  and  stagnated  water. 
At  other  times  he  was  tied  up  by  his  arms  until  almost 
all  his  joints  were  dislocated.  He  was  whipped  at 
the  post  several  times,  until  scarce  any  flesh  was  left 
on  his  back ;  and  all  this  was  done  to  make  him  recant. 
He  was  then  taken  to  the  Lollard's  Tower  in  Lam- 
beth Palace,  where  he  was  chained  by  the  neck  to 
the  wall,  and  once  every  day  beaten  in  the  most 
cruel  manner  by  the  archbishop's  servants.  At  last 
he  was  condemned,  degraded,  and  burnt  in  Smithfield." 

"In  the  year  1557  fifteen  were  imprisoned  in  the 
castle  of  Canterbury,  five  of  whom  perished  of  hunger." 

"Seizing  the  young  woman  by  the  wrist,  he  held 
the  lighted  candle  under  her  hand,  burning  it  cross- 


24  INTRODUCTORY 

wise  on  the  back  till  the  tendons  divided  from  the 
flesh.  .  .  .  Bonner  had  served  a  poor  blind  harper 
in  nearly  the  same  manner,  who  had  steadily  main- 
tained a  hope  that  if  every  joint  of  him  were  to  be 
burnt  he  should  not  fly  from  the  faith.  Bonner,  upon 
this,  privately  made  a  signal  to  his  men  to  bring  a 
burning  coal,  which  they  placed  in  the  poor  man's 
hand,  and  then  by  force  held  it  closed  till  it  burnt 
into  the  flesh  deeply." 

These  atrocities  were  committed,  not  by  a  savage 
tribe  living  in  the  Dark  Ages  to  whom  had  never  come 
the  refining  influences  of  Christianity,  but  by  our 
English  ancestors  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who  for 
a  thousand  years  had  lived  under  Christ's  teachings ! 
They  were  not  the  outrages  of  a  mob  blinded  by 
superstition,  maddened  by  the  sight  of  blood,  but  de- 
liberate tortures  inflicted  upon  fellow-countrymen  who 
differed  slightly  in  their  way  of  worshiping  the  same 
God.  One  who  studies  carefully  the  narratives  in 
this  book  must  raise  the  question  whether  occult  in- 
fluences were  not  at  work  in  China,  whether  "the 
world  rulers  of  this  darkness,"  "the  spiritual  hosts  of 
wickedness,"  did  not  play  an  important  part  in  the 
Boxer  movement.  Many  Chinese  officials  have  tried 
to  account  for  this  movement,  or  to  excuse  it,  by  say- 
ing, "It  was  one  wave  of  evil  spiritualism"  (hsieh  ch'i). 

The  atrocious  manner  of  the  death  of  many  of  these 
native  Christians,  who  were  hacked  to  small  fragments 
and  burned,  their  ashes,  in  some  cases,  being  passed 
under  stone  rollers  and  scattered  to  the  winds,  is 
explained  by  a  widely-prevailing  idea  among  the  peo- 
ple that,  unless  their  destruction  was  complete,  the 
Christians  would  rise  from  the  dead  within  three  days. 
They  did  not  realize  that  it  mattered  not  to  the  God 
who  raises  men  from  the  dead  though  their  bodies 


INTRODUCTORY  25 

were  dispersed  to  every  continent  of  the  globe  and 
to  uttermost  space. 

But  the  question  of  chief  interest  to  the  Church  of 
God  is  not  what  the  Chinese  suffered,  but  how  they 
endured  the  trial  of  great  affliction.  How  did  their 
deportment  during  these  hours  and  months  of  horror 
and  peril  compare  with  that  which  they  would  have 
exhibited  in  the  old  days  before  their  acceptance  of 
Christianity?  Now,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  about 
the  natural  Chinese  there  is  very  little  that  suggests 
the  heroic.  The  idea  of  enduring  pain  or  death  for 
the  sake  of  his  religion  would  seldom  suggest  itself 
to  him.  A  lie,  the  denial  of  a  belief,  the  promise 
to  drop  certain  ecclesiastical  relationships, — these 
things,  to  the  non-Christian  Chinese,  would  be  the 
most  natural  and  proper  expedients  to  save  life,  or 
even  to  secure  immunity  from  financial  loss.  The 
relatives  and  friends  of  the  native  Christians  apparently 
did  not  suppose  that  it  would  require  great  exertion 
of  persuasive  powers  to  induce  them  to  bend  before 
the  storm  until  it  was  overpast.  But  therein  they 
failed  to  reckon  on  the  radical  difference  between 
Christianity,  a  religion  of  the  heart  and  life,  and  their 
own  religions  of  the  head  or  of  mere  form.  In  thou- 
sands of  cases,  the  entreaties  of  friends  and  the  curses 
and  threats  of  enemies  were  alike  unavailing,  and  the 
Christians  went  to  the  most  cruel  death  rather  than 
deny,  even  in  word,  the  Savior  who  had  redeemed 
them.  So  great  was  the  heroism  which  many  of  them 
displayed  that  their  murderers  cut  out  their  hearts 
to  discover,  if  possible,  the  source  of  such  splendid 
courage. 

It  would  have  been  an  incredible  thing  to  report 
that  every  one  of  the  Christians  of  China  who  passed 
through  this  ordeal  had  endured  as  seeing  Him  who 


26  INTRODUCTORY 

is  invisible;  that  not  one  had  denied  his  faith  to  save 
his  Hfe.  There  is  no  country  in  the  world  which  could 
present  such  a  record  in  similar  circumstances,  and  no 
such  claim  is  made  for  China.  It  was  to  have  been 
expected  that,  as  in  the  first  centuries  of  the  Church's 
history,  which  presented  such  a  glorious  record  of 
heroic  endurance  of  persecution,  there  would  be  some 
to  whom  life  was  dearer  than  their  new-found  faith, 
others  who  would  recant  to  save  family  and  friends, 
and  still  others  who  would  regard  recantation  as  a 
justifiable  falsehood  in  self-defense  against  those  who 
were  making  ruthless  war  upon  them.  In  the  recent 
persecutions  in  China,  there  were  comparatively  few 
of  the  first  class,  a  larger  number  of  the  second,  and 
a  still  larger  number  of  the  third ;  but  the  sum  of 
all  three  classes  was  a  small  fraction  of  the  persecuted. 

The  attitude  of  these  three  great  classes  of  *'lapsi" 
was  very  different.  The  few  who  belong  in  the  first 
class  were  distinctly  "Rice  Christians,"  and  the  as- 
tounding fact  about  them  is,  that  their  number  was  so 
small  that  they  can  almost  be  left  out  of  the  account 
altogether.  They  had  joined  the  Christians,  in  spite 
of  the  risk  of  social  ostracism,  in  hope  of  securing 
worldly  advantage.  They  "had  their  price ;"  and  when 
the  price  was  not  paid,  they  were  wiUing  to  forsake 
the  Church  and  turn  their  backs  upon  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  few  who  belong  to  this  class  have  not 
again  associated  themselves  with  the  Christians,  but 
are  once  more  idolaters. 

The  second  class  was  of  a  distinctly  higher  grade, 
perhaps  the  highest  of  all  the  "lapsi."  The  peril  to 
themselves  did  not  move  them.  They  steadfastly  re- 
fused to  deny  Jesus  Christ  or  worship  idols.  Their 
friends  would  come  imploring  them  one  day;  their 
enemies  would  threaten  them  the  next.     Unable  to 


INTRODUCTORY  27 

move  them  with  anxiety  for  themselves,  their  friends 
would   beseech   them   to  consider   their   wives,   their 
children,  their  parents,  their   friends  who  were   en- 
deavoring to  save  them  by  securing  for  them  from 
the   Boxers  the   most   favorable  terms  of  surrender. 
"We  have  interceded  on  your  behalf;  you  need  not 
deny  your  faith  in  words  ;  you  need  not  offer  sacrifices ; 
you  need  not  even  burn  incense  ;  merely  go  and  stand 
in  the  door  of  the  village  temple,  and  it  will  be  all 
right.    Your  life  will  be  saved,  and  the  lives  of  all  your 
family,  and  we  shall  have  no  bloodshed  in  our  village. 
Can  you  not  do  that  much  for  those  whom  you  pro- 
fess to  love?     If  you  will  not,  there  is  no  help  for  it; 
you  will  be  utterly  destroyed  and  we  can  not  save 
you."     There  were  instances  of  pastors  of  Churches, 
who  were  told  that  if  they  would  simply  sign  a  paper 
promising  to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  for- 
eigner or  his  religion,  nothing  would  be  asked  of  the 
members  of  their  Churches;  they  need  make  no  re- 
cantation.    Many  of  those  who  yielded  have  not  at- 
tempted to  justify  themselves,  but  have  besought  for- 
giveness for  what  they  confessed  to  be  their  weak- 
ness.    One  can  hardly  help  wondering  whether  the 
American  Church,  subjected  to  an  equally  severe  trial, 
would  have  presented  a  better  record  of  faithfulness. 
Let  us  imagine,  if  we  can,  the  average  Church  member 
in  the  United  States  told  that  he  can  save  his  whole 
family  from  death  and  his  community  from  disruption 
by  standing  for  a  moment  before  an  idol,  or  signing 
his   name   to   a   paper  which   might   contain   nothing 
more  than  a  promise  to  "refrain  from  following  the 
devil's   religion;"   but   that,   if   he   refuses,   he    must 
watch  a  mob  of  men    (insane  through  superstition) 
burn  his  house,  hack  his  mother,  wife,  and  daughter  to 
pieces  before  his  eyes,  and  be  himself,  with  father  and 


28  INTRODUCTORY 

sons,  disemboweled  and  hurled  into  the  flames, — pic- 
ture all  this,  if  you  can,  and  then  ask  God  to  deliver 
you  from  the  necessity  of  meeting  such  a  trial  of  your 
faith  in  him ;  look  with  a  loving  charity  on  those 
who  finally  yielded  to  it,  and  praise  God  for  the  many 
who  were  faithful,  not  only  unto  their  own  death,  but 
unto  seeing  the  death  of  those  who  were  dearer  to 
them  than  themselves. 

The  third  and  largest  class  of  recanters  we  do  not 
attempt  to  justify;  but  they  too  deserve  very  chari- 
table dealing ;  for,  in  view  of  inheritance  and  previous 
education,  they  would  seem  to  have  been  more  ex- 
cusable than  was  the  Apostle  Peter  for  his  denial. 
They  had  no  thought  of  giving  up  their  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Many  of  them  continued  to  pray  in  their 
homes,  and  in  secret  gatherings ;  but  they  regarded 
themselves  as  justified  in  temporarily  denying,  by 
word  of  mouth  or  in  written  document,  their  faith  in 
the  religion  of  the  foreigner,  on  the  ground  that  the 
persecution  was  primarily  political,  and  that  falsehood 
is  permissible  in  defense  of  life.  In  many  districts 
these  recantations  were  ordered  by  the  magistrate, 
who,  in  not  a  few  instances,  urged  the  Christians  to 
sign  them  as  a  temporary  expedient  to  prevent  dis- 
turbance. It  was  urged  upon  them,  moreover,  as  a 
patriotic  duty  to  stand  with  their  own  country  in  its 
death-grapple  with  the  foreign  nations  which  had 
sought  to  throttle  its  life  and  rend  it  limb  from  limb. 

When  we  remember  that  even  China's  highest 
ethical  philosophy,  and  the  great  Confucius  who  es- 
tablished it,  not  merely  excuse  but  commend  falsehood 
in  defense  of  family  and  reputation;  that  there  is 
nothing  in  either  Buddhism  or  Taoism,  as  they  exist 
in  China  to-day,  to  rebuke  "the  lie  of  convenience;" 
that,  both  in  public  and  private  life,  cunning  casuistry 


INTRODUCTORY  29 

is  a  legitimate  helpmate ;  and  that  the  national  dis- 
regard for  truth,  except  in  certain  business  relations, 
has  made  lying  the  sin  as  to  the  sinfulness  of  which 
it  is   most   difficult   to   convince   the    Chinese,— when 
we  remember  all  this,  it  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at 
that  some  of  those  who  were  young  in  Christianity, 
and  had  back  of  them  no  Christian  ancestry,  regarded 
a  denial  of  their  faith  as  a  justifiable  strategem.    After 
the   troubles   were   over,   and  the   missionaries   were 
permitted  to  return,  they  found  it  no  easy  matter  to 
convict  these  people  of  sin.     They   still  believed  in 
Christ,  and  meant  to  serve  him.     In  their  hearts  they 
had  never  forsaken  him ;  and  they  felt  that  their  mis- 
sionary teachers  were  rather  hard  on  them  to  accuse 
them  of  great  sin.     So  firmly,  yet  lovingly,  has  the 
whole  matter  been  presented  to  them,  however,  that 
the  gravity  of  their  fault  has  been  perceived,  and  they 
have  broken  down  in  contrition  and  repentance.    There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  terrible  experience  has  been 
blessed  to  the  native  Church  in  a  deeper  knowledge 
of  the  character  of  the  fidelity  which  the  only  living 
and  true  God  asks  of  those  who  would  be  regarded 
as  his  faithful  people.    It  is  important  to  note  the  fact 
that  those  who  had  received  a  long  course  of  instruc- 
tion in  mission  schools,  with  hardly  an  exception,  re- 
fused to  be  deceived  by  casuistry ;  and,  facing  squarely 
the  issues  of  right  and  wrong,  of  life  and  death,  bravely 
chose  death.    The  instances  of  recantation  on  the  part 
of  preachers  and  teachers  employed  in  missions  never 
refer  to  those  trained  in  college  and  theological  sem- 
inary, but  usually  to  men  of  Confucian  training,  who, 
perhaps  late  in  life,  have  received  a  somewhat  superfi- 
cial Christian  training. 

It  has  been  a  strange  yet  not  altogether  inexpli- 
cable fact  that  the  number  of  recantations  has  been 


30  INTRODUCTORY 

smallest  in  the  region  where  the  persecution  assumed 
its  most  violent  and  deadly  form.  This  has  been  due, 
in  some  instances,  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  Chinese, 
known  to  be  Christians,  as  well  as  many  who  were 
merely  suspected  of  having  some  connection  with  the 
foreigner,  were  cut  down  or  burned  by  the  Boxers 
and  the  mob  without  being  given  any  opportunity  to 
escape  by  recantation.  It  is  probable  that  hundreds 
perished  in  this  way,  both  in  the  city  and  the  country. 
But  there  is  another  explanation  of  the  smaller  number 
of  recantations.  In  actual  experience  it  was  proved 
that  the  most  effective  form  of  persecution  was  not 
the  onrushing  mob  or  the  brandished  sword,  but  the 
long-continued  entreaties  of  friends  and  threats  of 
foes.  It  was  simply  another  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  in  every  land  who  would  die 
for  Christ,  who  can  not  stand  the  strain  of  livmg  for 
him.  There  were  those  who,  when  threatened  with 
instant  death  unless  they  denied  Christ,  gave  faithful 
testimony  for  him,  but  afterward  yielded  to  the  in- 
cessant importunities  of  friends  or  the  terrors  of  fre- 
quent alarms,  and  compromised  sufficiently  to  termi- 
nate the  distressing  conditions.  There  were  also,  on 
the  other  hand,  those  who  had  been  very  unsatisfactory 
Church  members,  and  others  who  had  never  been  bap- 
tized, who,  when  threatened  with  the  uplifted  sword 
and  asked  if  they  were  Christians,  died  rather  than 
deny  their  faith. 

There  is  still  a  third  element  in  the  explanation  of 
the  smallness  of  the  number  who  recanted  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Peking  and  Pao  Ting  Fu;  namely, 
the  wonderful  preparation  which  they  had  just  received 
for  their  fiery  trial  in  the  revival  movement  of  the 
previous  spring.  Of  this  movement  we  present  an 
account  in  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  PREPARATION  FOR  THE  TRIAL 

"They  that  wait  for  Jehovah  shall  renew  their  strength; 
they  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles;  they  shall  run  and 
not  be  weary;  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint." 

God's  girding  for  the  conflict, — how  much  better 
we  understand  it  now  than  when  our  Pentecost  came ! 
The  first  boatloads  of  Shantung  Boxers  coming  up 
the  Peiho  to  establish  their  altars,  were  preceded  only 
a  few  weeks  by  the  most  wonderful  revival  which 
ever  blessed  North  China.  During  the  last  half  of 
February  the  Methodist  Church  and  University  in 
Peking  received  its  quickening,  thence  the  movement 
spread  to  the  North  China  College  and  Church  of  the 
American  Board  at  T'ungchou,  then  back  to  the 
Peking  Churches  of  the  American  Board,  the  Presby- 
terian Board,  and  the  London  Mission,  and  out  to 
Pao  Ting  Fu  and  Tientsin  and  many  a  country  out- 
station.  March  and  April  were  spent  on  the  mountain- 
top  of  communion,  then  came  the  descent  to  the  valley, 
with  its  demon-possessed  victims  and  its  horrors. 

Of  this  revival  we  can  give  glimpses  only,  and 
let  us  take  them  first  at  T'ungchou,  the  place  where 
the  American  Board  Mission  first  saw  God's  mighty 
working  during  the  early  spring  days,  the  place  where, 
in  May  and  June,  the  powers  of  evil  first  laid  the 
hand  of  destruction  on  our  work. 

Never  was  human  agency  less  apparent  in  any  work 

31 


2,2        CHINA'S  BOOK  OI^  MARTYRS 

of  God's  than  in  that  revival.  God  met  us  face  to  face, 
and  the  white  Hght  of  that  vision  forced  the  cry,  "I  am 
a  man  of  unclean  lips,"  and  the  constraining  love  of 
that  Divine  face  inspired  the  vow,  ''Here  am  I;  send 
me." 

The  glimpses  we  give  are  taken  from  a  full  ac- 
count, written  at  the  time.  So  absorbing  was  this  topic 
that  the  fact  was  not  even  mentioned  that,  before 
the  meetings  closed,  students  passing  between  the  col- 
lege, a  mile  outside  the  city,  and  the  city  mission, 
sometimes  saw  amateur  Boxers  at  their  drill. 

It  was  on  Monday,  March  5th,  that  the  special 
meetings  began  in  both  college  chapel  and  city  church. 
Wednesday  evening  we  felt  the  first  movement  of  the 
wave  which  was  to  sweep  over  us.  The  next  forenoon 
we  attempted  a  few  recitations,  most  of  which  were 
turned  into  prayer-meetings ;  then  we  dismissed  school 
for  the  afternoon,  little  realizing  that  nearly  three 
weeks  would  pass  before  the  college  students  would 
complete  their  special  course  of  training  at  the  Master's 
feet,  and  gather  again  for  their  accustomed  duties. 
Thursday  evening  was  our  Pentecost.  The  words 
spoken  by  the  leader  were  few  and  simple ;  but  they 
went  home  to  hearts,  and  the  tender  singing  carried  its 
message  too.  We  were  asked  to  kneel  in  prayer; 
but  instead  of  hearing  one  voice,  a  general  murmur 
of  prayer  and  quiet  weeping  rose  from  every  part 
of  the  room.  In  a  few  seconds  nearly  every  one 
present  was  praying  in  a  low  voice  throbbing  with 
suppressed  feeling  or  broken  with  uncontrollable  sobs. 
We  were  thrilled  with  the  thought  of  the  "rushing, 
mighty  wind."  After  a  few  minutes  an  effort  was 
made  to  get  the  students  up  from  their  knees  by  sing- 
ing; but  one  might  as  well  have  tried  to  beat  back 
the  incoming  tide  with  his  hand.     There  was  not  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        33 

least  excitement ;  but  the  Spirit  had  come  convicting 
of  sin,  and  scores  of  youn^  men  and  boys  were  face 
to  face  with  the  Savior  whom  they  had  been  grieving, 
and  were  obhvious  of  aught  else.  There  followed 
a  season  of  intense  personal  work  when  teachers  and 
fellow-students  knelt  beside  the  burdened  ones,  and 
tried,  by  prayer  and  word,  to  help  them  lay  their  sins 
on  the  Crucified.  When  the  company  finally  rose  from 
their  knees,  there  were  many  heart-broken  confessions ; 
and  when  at  a  late  hour  the  meeting  was  closed,  twenty 
or  thirty  were  on  their  feet  to  express  a  desire  to  speak. 
This  will  serve  as  a  description  of  several  succeeding 
meetings,  though  the  intensity  decreased  as  more  and 
more,  each  night,  rejoiced  in  sins  forgiven,  and  turned 
to  help  their  comrades.  Finally,  in  this  soft  chorus 
of  prayer,  nearly  all  were  praying  for  others,  but  with 
hardly  less  of  intense  wrestling  than  when  they  were 
praying  for  themselves. 

The  meetings  of  that  first  week,  both  in  college 
and  city,  were  taken  up  largely  with  confessions, 
minute  and  definite,  not  the  easy  statements,  "I  am  a 
sinner,"  ''I  have  been  lukewarm  in  God's  service," 
"I  have  neglected  prayer,"  but  humble  confessions  of 
specific  sins. 

It  was  during  the  second  week  that  the  wonderful 
passage  in  First  Peter  gave  the  keynote  of  our  meet- 
ings :  ''Christ  also  suffered  for  you,  leaving  you  an 
example,  that  ye  should  follow  his  steps."  Back  of  the 
pulpit  in  the  college  chapel  hung  a  beautiful  picture, 
the  thorn-crowned  head  of  Christ,  and  below  was  a 
scroll  on  which  a  cross  was  painted,  and  on  the  cross 
were  written  the  words,  "Jesus  commands  us  to  follow 
his  steps."  Between  the  picture  and  the  cross  was 
the  motto,  "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us."  The 
need  of  a  complete  consecration  of  heart  and  life,  with 

3 


34        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

its  complementary  truth,  the  need  of  total  renunciation 
of  everything  which  hindered  Jesus  from  taking  com- 
plete possession  of  body  and  soul,  was  pressed  home 
to  all.  Those  who  thought  they  had  given  up  every 
known  sin,  and  were  new  men  in  Christ  Jesus,  were 
now  forced  to  make  a  new  self-examination,  and  a 
battle  between  flesh  and  spirit  commenced  in  the  heart 
of  nearly  every  student  in  college  and  theological 
seminary.  It  was  among  the  older  students,  standing 
on  the  threshold  of  their  life  work,  that  the  hardest 
struggles  took  place,  and  with  many  the  crucial  point 
was  the  unwillingness  to  be  a  preacher.  But  one  by 
one,  nearly  all  felt  that  they  could  sing  from  their 
hearts  the  words  of  the  hymn : 

"  I  '11  go  where  you  want  me  to  go,  dear  Lord, 
Over  mountain,  or  plain,  or  sea; 
I  '11  say  what  you  want  me  to  say,  dear  Lord, 
I  '11  be  what  you  want  me  to  be." 

For  several  days  the  regular  evening  service  was 
followed  by  a  consecration  meeting  in  the  reading- 
room,  the  first  two  nights  only  those  few  being  in- 
vited who  felt  that  they  had  made  a  full  surrender; 
then  those  also  were  invited  who  wished  to  make 
the  consecration,  but  who  had  some  difficulty  yet  to 
conquer.  These  meetings,  aside  from  the  seasons  of 
silent  prayer,  were  largely  conversational,  and  wise, 
loving  counsel  was  given.  There  was  always  a  solemn 
hush  in  the  room,  and  it  was  late  before  the  company 
separated.  Then  those  who  still  desired  private  con- 
versation would  remain,  or  follow  teachers  to  their 
rooms,  and  the  personal  work  there  would  go  on 
until  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock,  while  in  some  of  the 
students'  rooms  lights  would  be  burning  until  the 
morning  hours.    We  would  look  at  those  lighted  win- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        35 

dows  in  the  college  building,  and  pray  that  love  might 
there  conquer  self. 

It  was  thought  that  by  banding  together  and  adopt- 
ing some  sort  of  a  covenant,  the  precious  influences 
of  these  meetings  might  be  conserved.  So,  nearly  four 
weeks  after  the  meetings  began,  over  fifty  "Comrades 
of  the  Sacred  Steps"  signed  their  names  to  a  covenant 
of  which  the  gist  is  given  in  the  words,  "It  is  my 
fixed  determination  to  follow  the  footsteps  of  Jesus, 
and  in  order  to  accomplish  this  purpose  I  ask  the 
guidance  of  Jesus  and  the  help  of  the  Spirit." 

After  the  first  two  weeks  of  revival-meetings  the 
question  of  resuming  the  college  classes  was  dismissed. 
Many  of  the  older  students  had  already  expressed  a 
desire  to  carry  to  others  the  new  light  and  love  which 
had  come  into  their  own  lives.  It  seemed  to  them 
impossible  to  settle  down  again  to  study  before  this 
burden  for  others  grew  lighter.  There  was  a  "fire  in 
their  bones,"  and  it  did  not  seem  right  to  restrain 
them.  So  Monday  and  Tuesday  of  the  third  week 
saw  the  "sending  out  of  the  seventy,"  all  of  the 
seminary  students,  more  than  half  of  the  college  stu- 
dents, and  some  of  the  teachers  going  by  twos,  threes, 
and  fours  to  all  of  our  important  stations  and  out- 
stations  which  could  be  reached  by  a  day's  travel. 
Ten  important  centers  of  work  were  chosen,  among 
them  Peking,  Pao  Ting  Fu,  and  Tientsin. 

The  next  Monday  the  young  evangelists  returned, 
as  joyful  as  the  seventy  of  old.  In  the  ten  places  six 
or  seven  hundred  Church  members  had  been  reached. 
In  some  of  the  meetings  the  sin-searching  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  had  been  as  evident  as  in  the  T'ungchou 
meetings,  and  the  power  of  the  cross  moved  many 
hearts  in  these  scattered  communities  to  a  new  con- 
secration to  their  Savior.    In  Pao  Ting  Fu,  which  was 


S6        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

visited  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Goodrich  and  some  of  the 
college  students,  both  missionaries  and  native  Chris- 
tians were  drawn  especially  close  to  Him  whose  cup 
they  were  to  share  in  three  short  months.  Of  the 
thousand  Christians  of  the  American  Board  to  whom 
came  a  message  from  heaven  in  that  month  of  March, 
nearly  half  had  seen  the  King  in  his  beauty  before 
the  last  June  days.  To  many  that  promise  to  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus  meant  the  fellowship  of  his 
sufferings,  the  laying  down  of  life,  the  glory  at  his 
right  hand. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  F.  E.  Clark,  of  Christian  Endeavor 
fame,  who  visited  T'ungchou  about  the  middle  of 
May,  met  once  with  the  ^'Comrades  of  the  Sacred 
Steps,"  and,  in  commenting  on  our  motto.  Dr.  Clark 
said  that  this  following  of  Jesus  in  sacrifice  and  suffer- 
ing would  be  only  for  *'a  little  while ;"  then  would  come 
the  joy  of  the  home-going.  How  soon  that  half-uncon- 
scious prophecy  was  fulfilled ! 

The  following  account  of  the  revival  among  Pres- 
byterians in  Peking  is  given  by  Rev.  Courtenay  H. 
Fenn: 

"About  the  middle  of  March,  the  Rev.  J.  Walter 
Lowrie,  a  member  of  the  Pao  Ting  Fu  Presbyterian 
Station,  accepted  the  invitation  of  the  T'ungchou 
missionaries  to  help  them  for  a  few  days  with  the 
meetings  which  had  already  created  an  absorbing  and 
transforming  interest.  He  both  helped  and  was 
helped.  Returning  from  T'ungchou  March  19th,  he 
spent  a  night  in  Peking,  reporting  the  wonderful  work 
of  the  Spirit  which  he  had  just  witnessed.  For  many 
days  there  had  been  a  growing  longing  in  this  station 
that  it  too  might  share  in  the  spiritual  blessing  already 
poured  out  so  largely  on  two  other  missions ;  and  at 
once  on  Mr.  Lowrie's  arrival,  it  being  impossible  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        Z7 

send  a  notice  to  the  members  of  the  Church,  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  a  meeting  in  the  Boys*  Boarding- 
school,  to  which  all  Christians  within  reach  were  in- 
vited. This  was  followed  by  an  after-meeting,  and 
by  another  meeting  in  the  morning,  all  present  being 
much  stirred  by  the  words  of  Mr.  Lowrie.  A  number 
of  days  were  allowed  to  pass  without  other  special 
effort  than  an  unusual  earnestness  in  the  daily  morn- 
ing prayers  of  the  school ;  but  at  the  close  of  the  week 
it  became  evident  that  there  was  a  strong  desire  for 
a  united  waiting  upon  God  for  a  richer  blessing.  It 
was  decided  to  hold  three  services  each  day  for  at 
least  a  week,  a  half-hour  of  prayer  in  the  morning 
at  each  of  the  two  Presbyterian  compounds — about 
a  mile  and  a  half  apart — a  union  service  in  the  after- 
noon on  the  east  side,  and  a  union  evening  service 
on  the  west  side.  These  meetings  were  continued  for 
two  weeks,  closing  with  a  consecration  service,  at 
which  a  form  of  covenant  similar  to  that  used  in 
T'ungchou  was  adopted  by  a  large  number  of  the 
Church  members,  many  of  whom  had  confessed  their 
sins,  endeavored  to  make  restitution,  and  determined 
henceforth  to  follow  Jesus  whithersoever  he  might 
lead  them.  As  elsewhere,  the  revival  was  marked 
by  conviction  of  sin,  immediate  evidence  of  repentance, 
a  clearer  conception  of  the  simplicity  of  the  Christian 
life  as  a  daily  doing  of  what  we  believe  Jesus  would 
do  in  our  places,  and  an  earnest  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  evangelization  of  others.  It  stimulated  and 
cultivated  a  robust  piety  among  the  students  in  the 
Boys'  and  Girls'  Schools  which  made  possible  that 
marvelous  record  of  heroic  fidelity  displayed  by  them 
during  the  fearful  trials  of  the  following  summer, 
when  so  many  of  them  laid  down  their  lives  as  Chris- 
tian   martyrs.      And    it    made    keen    the    conscience, 


38        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

strengthened  the  heart,  and  nerved  the  courage  of 
the  older  Church  members  for  a  similar  faithful  en- 
durance of  such  tribulations  as  the  Chinese  Church 
had  never  known." 

Far  to  the  south,  in  Ningpo,  Christians  were  watch- 
ing and  praying.     Mr.   Shoemaker  writes :     "It  was 
rather  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  the  Sabbath  which 
/  all  our  Ningpo  Presbytery  observed  as  a  day  of  prayer 
f  and  fasting  was  the  very  day  on  which  the  infamous 
i  edict  to  begin  hostilities  throughout  the  empire  was 
I  being  promulgated  in   every  province.     .     .     .     An- 
i  other  rather  remarkable  circumstance  was  in  the  prep- 
aration of  some  of  our  people  for  just  such  times  of 
trial.  Pastor  Noh,  of  the  Bao  Ko  Toh  Church,  had  been 
reading  a  history  of  the  martyrs  to  his  people  every 
Sabbath  morning  for  almost  a  year,  and  finished  just 
a  few  weeks  before  the  trouble  broke  out.     At  the 
meeting  of  the   Synod  in  May  he  urged  most  ear- 
nestly upon  his  fellow-pastors  the  need  of  preparing 
their  people  for  persecution.    'For,'  said  he,  'God  has 
always  used  persecution  to  establish  his  kingdom  in  a 
country,  and  he  will  not  use  a  different  method  in 
China.'  " 

Mr.  Dreyer,  of  the  China  Inland  Mission,  writes: 
"As  we  look  back  over  the  events  of  the  past  months, 
we  see  how  graciously  God  prepared  the  hearts  of  his 
servants  in  Shansi  for  the  troublous  times  through 
which  they  were  to  pass.  The  threatening  famine 
with  its  myriad  of  difficulties  had  long  been  weighing 
heavily  upon  us,  keeping  us  reminded  of  our  utter 
dependence  on  God.  The  visit  of  Rev.  William  Cooper 
in  May  was  also  an  important  factor  in  our  prepara- 
tion. .  .  .  His  messages  were  full  of  comfort  and 
strength ;  especially  so  were  his  thoughts  on  the  words, 
*1  will  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee.'    So  that  we 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        39 

may  boldly  say,  *The  Lord  is  my  helper,  I  will  not 
fear  what  man  shall  do  unto  me.'  " 

Mrs.  Clapp,  of  Tai  Ku,  Shansi,  writing  on  May  25th 
of  the  drought,  adds,  "We  had  a  three  days'  meeting 
last  week  to  comfort  the  people  and  help  them  draw 
near  to  the  Lord." 

At  Tai  Yuan  Fu  there  is  held  every  year  a  great 
conference,  which  brings  together  workers  from  every 
mission  in  that  vicinity.  On  February  15,  1900,  Miss 
Coombs  wrote,  "The  Conference  of  1900  is  only  a 
memory  now,  but  a  very  blessed  one."  Another  closed 
his  report  thus :  "What  has  been  the  leading  thought 
of  the  Conference  ?  That  all  we  need  is  Christ, — to 
see  him,  to  gaze  upon  him,  to  rest  in  him ;  and  he 
is  ours."  Many  of  that  company,  before  the  summer 
days  were  ended,  gazed  on  a  form  bearing  a  cross; 
then  the  earthly  vision  ended,  and  they  saw  him  stand- 
ing at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

After  this  waiting  for  Jehovah,  this  renewing  of 
strength,  the  Church  in  North  China  stood  facing  the 
oncoming  storm.  There  is  an  anguish  keener  than 
hope  deferred.  It  is  suffering  deferred ;  the  watching 
through  long  weeks  for  the  conflict  from  which  there 
is  no  escape,  the  brooding  day  and  night  over  the 
torture  of  body,  the  agony  of  heart,  the  testing  of 
faith,  which  are  sure  to  come.  It  is  hard  not  to  be 
afraid  of  evil  tidings  when  one  day  comes  the  rumor 
of  the  mustering  of  Boxer  hosts  by  thousands  in  a 
city  near  at  hand,  and  the  next  comes  word  that  the 
blow  has  fallen  on  some  little  Christian  band  farther 
away.  Early  in  May  refugees  from  the  south  began 
to  flock  to  Peking  with  sad  stories  of  the  ravages  of 
flame  and  sword.  Then  native  evangelists,  who  for 
weary  weeks  had  remained  with  their  flocks  in  country 
outstations  while  the  Boxers  drilled  at  their  very  doors. 


40        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

knew  that  the   end  was  near.     There  are  no  more 
pathetic  pictures  in  this  book  than  those  which  show 
these  evangeHsts,  in  their  last  hours,  gathering  men, 
women,  and  children  about  them  to  commit  their  souls 
to  God.    Was  there  ever  a  sublimer  proof  of  trust  in 
^  God  than  "A  Chinese  Girl"  describes  on  that  morning 
j.  of  June   20th  when   Mrs.   Jewell,   of  the   Methodist 
]  Mission  in  Peking,  knelt  with  a  hundred  schoolgirls 
for  a  farewell  prayer,  and  those  girls,  expecting  that 
their  teacher  would  be  torn  away  from  them  in  a  few 
moments,  and  that  the  Boxers  would  rush  into  the 
room  where  they  sat  awaiting  death,  faced  those  name- 
less horrors  with  calm  eyes  and  trustful  hearts? 

The  gradual  breaking  up  of  the  Bridgman  School 
of  the  American  Board  in  Peking  involved  many  sad 
partings,  and  the  survivors  of  the  massacres  cherish 
the  loving  memory  of  twenty  schoolmates  who  went 
out  to  their  homes  in  city  or  country,  and  were  soon 
numbered  with  the  thousands  who,  during  those  sum- 
mer days,  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  Master.  One 
day  a  father  would  come  for  his  daughter,  and  tell 
how  their  village  swarmed  with  Boxers,  who  boasted 
that  they  would  leave  not  even  a  Christian's  chicken 
alive.  Then  an  uncle  would  come  telling  how  his 
pastor  brother  could  not  leave  his  village  flock  to  bring 
his  little  girls  to  his  home,  so  he  had  come  for  them 
that  the  children  might  be  with  their  parents  when  the 
storm  broke.  Amid  all  these  distractions,  work  in  the 
classrooms  went  on  as  usual,  even  the  little  children 
putting  their  trust  in  Jesus  and  going  about  their 
daily  tasks.  Then  came  a  day  when  the  teachers  de- 
cided that  all  who  could  be  safely  taken  to  their  homes 
must  go,  and  only  twenty-one  were  left  in  the  school 
to  pass  with  their  teachers  through  the  siege  of  Peking. 
The  Girls'  Boarding-school  of  the  Methodist  Mis- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        41 

sion  had  not  been  disbanded,  and  a  hundred  girls  en- 
dured the  siege.  The  forty  girls  in  the  boarding-school 
at  the  Presbyterian  Mission  were  sent  to  their  homes 
about  the  first  of  June.  All  but  fifteen  of  these  girls 
perished,  but  only  one  of  the  whole  number  recanted, 
and  she  did  so  as^'a  temporary  expedient,  to  be  re- 
pented of  with  deep  contrition. 

Mr.   Fenn   writes   of  the   Boys'   Boarding-school : 
"As  the  first  of  June  drew  near,  and  the  time  for  the 
closing  of  the  schools  for  the  summer,  the  boys  began 
to  be  greatly  alarmed  by  what  they  saw  and  heard 
on  the   streets   of   Peking.     Boxers   were   practicing 
everywhere  unrestrained,  and  those  whom  one  passed 
on  the  street  had  become  very  insulting  and  threaten- 
ing.   The  boys  finally  begged  to  have  the  school  closed 
a  week  earlier  than  had  been  planned,  that  they  might 
scatter  to  their  homes  before  the  storm  broke.    They 
were  counseled  to  finish  the  work  of  the  term  in  quiet- 
ness of  mind,  as  no  one  really  knew  whether  anything 
would  take  place,  or  whether  the  city  or  the  country, 
the  presence  or  the  absence  of  the  foreigners,  would 
afiford   the    greater   protection.     They   accepted   this 
counsel,  continued  their  work,  passed  very  satisfactory 
examinations,  and  on  the  sixth  of  June  the  forty  boys 
of  the  school  were  sent  to  their  homes,  some  in  the 
city,  some  in  the  country.     Only  twenty-five  of  those 
boys   survived  that   summer;  but,   so   far  as  can   be 
learned,  not  one  of  the  whole  number  denied  his  faith 
in  order  to  save  his  life.     When  they  were  about  to 
disperse,  their  teachers  said  to  them :    *Boys,  we  know 
not  what  awaits  us  during  the  coming  summer.    Great 
danger  certainly  threatens  us  all ;  but  out  of  it  all  our 
Lord  can  deliver  us,  if  it  is  his  holy  will.     Of  more 
importance  to  you  than  all  the  science  and  mathematics 
which  we  have  been  teaching  you,  is  the  gospel  of 


42        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Jesus  Christ,  which  you  have  heard  every  day,  and 
which  almost  every  one  of  you  has  accepted  for  him- 
self. Most  of  you  have  promised  to  do  whatever  you 
believe  Jesus  would  do  were  he  in  your  places.  The 
one  duty,  then,  which  is  set  before  us  is  to  be  true 
to  the  truth,  no  matter  what  it  costs.'  The  boys  said 
that  they  would  be  true,  and  they  were  true." 

Perhaps  we  can  not  better  picture  the  wild  rumors, 
the  vague  dread,  the  triumphant  faith,  of  these  days 
before  the  storm,  than  by  describing  a  gathering  of  the 
Christians  in  the  mission  compound  at  T'ungchou 
on  the  first  Sunday  in  June,  the  last  Sunday  before 
that  compound  became  a  shapeless  mass  of  ruins.  Not 
in  many  instances  have  the  exact  words  spoken  been 
recorded,  but  the  impression  left  on  the  memory  by 
that  informal  gathering  of  women  between  the  regular 
services  will  never  pass  away. 

Mrs.  T'ang  told  how  the  crowd  on  the  street  jeered 
at  her  as  she  walked  along  with  her  Bible  and  hymn- 
book  :  ''What !  still  going  to  church  with  those  foreign 
devils?  Don't  you  know  that  you  are  all  going  to  be 
killed  in  a  few  days?"  A  young  girl  sitting  beside 
Mrs.  T'ang  said:  "I  came  along  that  same  street. 
They  pointed  at  my  unbound  feet  as  I  passed  by,  say- 
ing, 'Xook  at  those  big  feet.  She  is  surely  a  follower 
of  the  foreign  devils." 

"I  saw  a  yellow  paper  with  a  queer  scrawl  smeared 
on  it  in  red,  pasted  on  a  gate  that  I  passed,"  said  a 
young  woman.  "They  are  being  put  up  all  over  the 
city,  and  in  Peking,  too.  The  Boxers  say  that  they 
are  written  in  blood  by  the  Christians,  and  that  all  the 
people  in  a  yard  where  one  is  pasted  up  will  go  insane 
in  seven  days." 

''That  is  at  least  an  interesting  variation  on  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        43 

well-worn  lie  that  foreigners  dig  out  the  eyes  and 
hearts  of  children  to  use  for  medicine,"  interrupted 
another. 

The  young  woman  continued  :  "I  noticed  as  I  came 
past  that  the  well  out  here  on  the  street-corner  was 
covered  over  as  tight  as  a  drum." 

*'Yes,  haven't  you  heard  about  that?"  responded 
the  wife  of  a  helper  who  lived  in  the  mission  compound. 
"A  few  nights  ago  the  rabble  caught  a  beggar  there, 
saying  that  he  had  a  package  of  poison  given  him  by 
the  foreigners  to  throw  into  the  well.  We  heard  that 
a  hundred  men  had  armed  themselves  and  were  coming 
after  dark  to  burn  the  church  and  exterminate  every 
one  in  the  compound.  They  did  n't  come ;  but  I  con- 
fess that  I  did  n't  sleep  much  that  night." 

Another  of  the  group  said:  "The  wells  in  the 
west  suburb  are  all  covered  and  locked,  only  certain 
men  being  allowed  to  draw  water.  One  of  the  mis- 
sionaries says  that,  when  she  was  holding  a  meeting 
there  last  Sunday,  a  woman  came  in  and  asked  her 
•  if  it  was  true  that  the  missionaries  were  having  all  the 
wells  poisoned.  She  smiled  and  said:  'Do  you  sup- 
pose that  I  would  dare  to  walk  out  here  among  you 
if  we  missionaries  were  doing  wicked  things  like  that  ? 
During  all  these  years  have  n't  we  given  you  medicine 
when  you  were  sick,  and  food  when  you  were  hungry, 
and  have  n't  you  learned  yet  that  we  love  you?'  *Yes, 
surely,'  admitted  the  woman;  then  continued:  'But 
they  say,  too,  that  the  Christians  are  n't  afraid  to  drink 
this  poisoned  water,  because  the  foreigners  have  sup- 
plied them  with  a  counter-poison  which  they  drop  into 
the  water,  making  it  perfectly  harmless.'  " 

Another  woman  reported :    "I  have  heard  that  few 
people  in  the  west  suburb  bum  foreign  oil  in  their 


44        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

lamps  any  more,  for  it  Is  said  that  the  eyeballs  of 
any  one  who  sits  a  few  minutes  by  the  light  of  a 
kerosene  lamp  will  roll  right  out  of  his  head." 

"I  don't  think  these  rumors  are  any  joke,"  said 
an  anxious-faced  woman.  ''When  one  of  the  mis- 
sionary ladies  was  going  through  a  busy  city  street 
a  few  days  ago,  a  great  rowdy  stepped  out  in  front 
of  her  and  performed  a  pantomime,  going  through 
the  motions  of  beheading  an  invisible  victim." 

"Have  you  heard  that  two  English  missionaries 
have  been  killed  about  forty  miles  south  of  here?  I 
should  think  our  missionaries  would  want  to  be  get- 
ting to  a  place  of  safety." 

"What  can  we  do  if  they  leave  us?" 

A  young  man  standing  at  the  door  replied :  "They 
will  only  be  throwing  away  their  lives  if  they  stay 
here.  Suppose  worst  comes  to  worst,  and  we  all  flee 
to  them  for  protection,  how  long  can  three  or  four 
missionaries  and  the  few  of  us  who  have  guns  keep 
back  a  savage  mob?  Our  chances  will  be  far  better 
if  we  scatter  in  the  mountains  or  seek  a  refuge  in 
villages  where  we  are  not  known  as  Christians." 

"I  hear,"  said  one  of  the  company,  "that  Deacon 
Li  says  that  he  is  not  going  to  run  away,  whatever 
happens.  He  will  stay  in  his  home  and  show  his  colors 
as  usual." 

"I  am  not  afraid  to  die,"  said  a  young  mother,  her 
voice  trembling  a  little,  "if  I  only  knew  that  they 
would  kill  me  quickly.  But  I  am  afraid  of  insult  and 
torture.     And  then  my  baby !" 

Then  an  older  woman  spoke :  "For  weeks  my  heart 
was  full  of  sorrow  and  anxiety.  I  kept  a  little  clothing 
tied  up  in  a  bundle,  ready  to  run  at  the  first  alarm. 
But  now  I  feel  perfectly  restful.  For  life  or  for  death 
I  am  just  going  to  trust  in  Jesus." 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        45 

The  prayers  which  had  gone  up  week  after  week 
as  men  and  women  turned  from  the  heavenly  visions 
which  had  come  to  them  during  those  revival  days  to 
face  the  horrors  of  the  coming  days  of  persecution, 
were  cries  that  strength  might  be  given  to  be  true  to 
Him  who  had  redeemed  them.  How  these  prayers  were 
answered  the  following  pages  will  show.  During  those 
weeks  of  suspense  not  all  put  their  trust  in  God.  Of 
the  two  hundred  and  fifty  Church  members  in  T'ung- 
chou  we  know  of  three  who  had  set  up  heathen  gods 
in  their  homes  before  the  carnage  began.  Thank  God 
that  the  many  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  entreaties  of 
relatives  and  heathen  neighbors,  and  "endured  as  see- 
ing him  who  is  invisible." 

"  The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war, 
A  kingly  crown  to  gain  ; 
His  blood-red  banner  streams  afar: 
Who  follows  in  his  train  ? 

Who  best  can  drink  his  cup  of  woe 

Triumphant  over  pain, 
Who  patient  bears  his  cross  below, — 

He  follows  in  his  train." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  CHRISTIANS  IN  THE  SIEGE  OF 
PEKING 

"Thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  for  the  terror  by  night, 
Nor  for  the  arrow  that  flieth  by  day ; 
For  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness, 
Nor  for  the  destruction  that  wasteth  at  noonday. " 

Part  I 

A  chine:se  girIv's  story  op  the:  sie:ge; 

[The  following  is  not  a  translation,  but  is  a  free 
rendering  of  the  story  as  given  orally.] 

I  WAS  studying  in  the  Bridgman  School  in  Peking 
when  the  Boxer  trouble  became  so  serious  that,  late  in 
May,  we  began  scattering  to  our  homes.  I  had  no 
home  of  my  own.  Six  years  before,  cholera  had 
broken  up  our  home  circle,  and  I,  a  desolate  child  of 
eleven,  had  been  adopted  by  one  of  the  missionary 
ladies,  who  found  a  home  for  me  in  vacation  times 
with  some  Christian  family.  The  home  to  which  I 
went  when  this  new  trouble  began  was  that  of  Mr. 
Kung,  evangelist  and  doctor,  who,  with  his  wife  and 
two  little  boys,  lived  in  the  city  of  T'ungchou,  four- 
teen miles  from  Peking. 

Little  did  I  dream  how  few  days  I  should  spend 
in  that  home!  Thursday  morning,  June  7th,  there 
came  to  us  from  a  village  ten  miles  away  a  young  man 
whose  eyes  were  wild  with  horror.     "I  am  the  only 

46 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        47 

one  left  of  the  twenty  Christians  in  our  village,"  he 
gasped ;  "the  Boxers  and  soldiers  killed  all  of  the 
others  last  night,  and  burned  the  chapel  and  our 
homes." 

A  few  hours  later  a  young  man  came  from  a  town 
in  this  region,  and  told  how  that  very  morning 
Boxer  knives  had  cut  down  one  and  another,  sparing 
neither  helpless  infants  nor  feeble  old  women.  How 
soon  w^ould  the  blow  fall  on  us?  Then  missionaries 
with  grief-stricken  faces  came  to  us.  They  had  been 
to  see  the  highest  mandarin  in  the  city,  and  he,  with 
tears  flowing  down  his  cheeks,  had  said  that  he  was 
powerless  to  protect  them  longer;  his  own  life  was 
in  danger  because  of  what  he  had  done  for  them 
already.  The  missionaries  must  flee  to  Peking  that 
very  night.  Would  the  Christians  go  with  them,  or 
scatter  to  find  places  of  refuge  for  themselves?  My 
missionary  mother  wished  me  to  go  to  Peking,  and 
the  Kungs  decided  that  they,  too,  would  cast  in  their 
lot  with  the  missionaries. 

Sad  indeed  were  the  hours  of  that  afternoon  and 
night  when  we  gathered  together  the  few  necessities 
which  we  could  take  with  us,  then  packing  ourselves 
inside  a  small,  covered  cart,  started  out  for  Peking. 
It  seemed  sometimes  as  if  we  were  moving  in  a  dream, 
yet  Jesus  was  very  near  to  us  and  our  hearts  were 
not  afraid.  The  sun  rose  clear  and  beautiful  before 
we  were  half  way  to  Peking.  The  children  were 
playing  in  the  villages  just  as  usual,  and  we  did  not 
meet  any  Boxers.  Then  we  saw  the  wall  of  the  city 
of  Peking  looming  up  before  us,  and  soon  we  were  in 
the  shelter  of  the  Methodist  Mission. 

No  foreigners  or  Christians  had  been  killed  in 
Peking  yet ;  but  Boxers  were  pouring  into  the  city 
by  thousands,  and  that  same  Friday  all  of  the  American 


48        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

missionaries  in  Peking,  over  seventy  men,  women,  and 
children,  also  many  of  the  native  Christians  who  had 
fled  from  their  homes  in  the  surrounding  country,  took 
refuge  in  the  Methodist  Mission.  It  was  almost  dark 
when  twenty  of  my  schoolmates  who  had  not  been 
able  to  get  to  their  homes  came  over  from  the  board- 
ing-school. What  a  strange  gathering  of  homeless 
ones !  Many  of  them  did  not  know  whether  their 
dear  ones  in  distant  places  were  dead  or  alive.  They 
gathered  in  the  large,  beautiful  church,  and  as  we  sat 
together  in  the  evening  twilight  we  wondered  what  the 
coming  days  held  for  us.  The  girls  were  all  Chris- 
tians, and  even  the  little  ones  did  not  cry.  They  slept 
in  the  church  that  night,  and  for  many  a  night  after, 
the  hundred  girls  in  the  Methodist  boarding-school 
also  marching  over  from  the  school  across  the  street 
every  night  to  sleep  in  the  church  for  greater  security. 
I  staid  with  the  Kungs  in  a  tiny  house  in  the  same 
compound  with  the  church,  but  in  a  yard  several  rods 
away.  This  great  compound  was  filled  with  residences 
and  schools.  The  foreigners  were  all  packed  into  the 
missionaries'  homes,  and  we  Chinese  crowded  into  the 
college  recitation-rooms  and  some  little  dormitories 
close  by.  Day  by  day  refugees  kept  pouring  in  until 
we  numbered  about  seven  hundred,  and  tents  were  put 
up.  As  they  came  in  from  city  and  country  and  we 
listened  to  their  terrible  stories,  our  hearts  would  grow 
sick  with  horror.  Hundreds  in  the  loved  circle  of  our 
T'ungchou  Church  had  been  killed  before  they  suc- 
ceeded in  escaping,  or  were  hunted  down  in  their 
hiding-places.  Some  of  the  refugees  bore  on  their 
bodies  the  marks  of  flame  or  sword ;  many  had  left 
father,  mother,  wife,  child,  or  other  dear  ones  lying 
dead  on  the  streets  of  Peking,  or  beside  the  ruins  of 
once  happy  homes. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        49 

The  men  had  not  much  time  to  listen  to  these  heart- 
breaking reports.  They  were  busy  ni^ht  and  day  work- 
ing on  fortifications  or  keeping  guard  at  the  numerous 
sentry-posts.  Sometimes  we  women  and  children 
would  help  to  dig  out  the  bricks  from  the  walks  or 
the  walls  and  carry  them  to  the  places  where  they  were 
building  barricades.  There  was  a  high  brick  wall 
around  the  compound,  and  all  of  the  gateways  except 
two  were  bricked  up,  leaving  loopholes  for  rifles  and 
a  small  space  at  the  top  for  ventilation,  and  they  stored 
in  the  church  enough  provisions  to  last  our  hundreds 
of  people  a  few  days.  We  were  only  one  or  two 
hundred  yards  from  the  sixty-foot-high  wall  which 
divides  the  southern  and  northern  cities.  Often  we 
saw  Chinese  soldiers  walking  on  the  top  of  this  wall 
and  looking  down  at  us.  If  several  thousand  of  them 
stood  there  pointing  their  rifles  at  us,  and  if  they 
mounted  cannon  on  that  wall,  what  would  our  lives  be 
worth?  Already  several  thousand  Chinese  soldiers 
were  encamped  within  the  city,  only  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
away. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  sixth  day  we  spent  in 
Peking.  In  the  twilight  the  women  gathered  in  four 
different  rooms  for  evening  prayers.  As  we  were  all 
kneeling  we  heard  the  cry,  **Fire !  Fire !"  and  some 
one  came  to  the  door  saying,  *'The  Boxers  are  coming !" 
No  one  screamed  or  ran.  We  rose  quietly  from  our 
knees,  and  the  missionaries  who  were  leading  the  meet- 
ings told  us  to  be  ready  to  march  into  the  church,  but 
not  to  start  until  the  order  came.  We  stepped  outdoors 
and  saw  smoke  rising  not  far  away.  The  Boxers  had 
set  fire  to  a  little  chapel  near  our  compound.  All  the 
men  who  had  guns,  spears,  or  knives,  stood  ready  to 
meet  the  Boxers  if  they  broke  in.  We  heard  several 
rifle-shots.    It  was  the  twenty  American  marines  who 

4 


50        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

had  been  sent  from  the  American  Legation  to  help 
guard  our  place  firing  at  the  Boxer  mob  which  had 
started  down  our  street  from  the  burning  chapel.  Soon 
some  missionary  ladies  came  to  lead  the  women  and 
children  into  the  church.  Not  one  in  that  long  proces- 
sion filing  into  the  dark  church  looked  frightened.  I 
didn't  feel  as  if  any  danger  was  near;  it  just  seemed 
strange,  that  was  all.  Feeling  our  way  in  the  dark,  we 
found  a  vacant  seat  near  the  door.  We  could  not  see  a 
face,  but  could  hear  a  familiar  voice  here  and  there.  We 
were  in  the  Sunday-school  room,  while  in  the  body  of 
the  church  were  the  crowds  of  schoolgirls,  and  grouped 
around  the  pulpit  were  the  missionary  ladies  with  their 
children. 

All  over  the  city  flames  were  starting  up  as  the 
Boxers  went  from  mission  to  mission  with  their 
torches.  The  school  where  I  had  studied  so  many 
years  was  in  ashes  the  next  morning.  Hundreds  of 
Christians  were  hunted  from  street  to  street,  and  cut 
down  with  those  awful  swords.  We  could  see  the 
sky  all  lit  up  with  the  flames,  but  the  cries  of  our 
tortured  friends  did  not  reach  us. 

The  next  night  was  clear  and  beautiful,  though 
clouds  of  smoke  were  still  drifting  over  the  city,  in 
which  foreign  houses  and  stores,  telegraph  offices,  post- 
offices,  and  homes  of  Christians  were  burning.  Just 
as  we  were  lying  down  to  sleep,  suddenly  from  the 
opposite  side  of  the  high  city  wall  rose  the  cry,  ''Kill ! 
kill !  kill !"  It  swelled  to  a  perfect  tumult  of  sound, 
voicing  the  mad  rage  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Boxers. 
''Kill  the  foreign  devils  !  Kill  the  erh  mao-tzu  l"^  Kill ! 
kill !"  For  two  hours  the  mob  raved  in  this  wild 
frenzy;  then,  as  suddenly  as  it  had  begun^,  the  tumult 


*See  Introduction  foi"  explanation  of  this  term  of  reproach  for  na- 
tive Christians. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        51 

ceased ;  we  fell  asleep,  and  awoke  to  another  day,  still 
kept  in  perfect  peace. 

Now  I  am  going  to  let  one  of  my  schoolmates  tell 
the  story  of  our  twelfth  day  in  Peking,  just  as  she 
told  it  to  me : 

**On  the  twentieth  of  June  we  hundred  and  twenty 
girls  rose  as  usual  from  our  night's  rest  on  the  church 
floor,  and  Mrs.  Jewell  and  Miss  Haven  led  us  back 
across  the  barricaded  street  to  our  schoolhouse.  There 
we  ate  our  morning  meal.  I  noticed  that  all  the  mis- 
sionaries whom  we  met  that  morning  had  white, 
anxious  faces.  All  of  our  teachers  except  one  were 
absent  for  an  hour,  and  we  heard  that  they  were  at- 
tending a  prayer-meeting  across  the  street.  The  lady 
who  usually  sat  from  eight  to  ten  on  a  veranda  near 
our  schoolhouse,  ready  to  give  us  warning  if  it  was 
necessary  to  flee  back  to  the  church,  that  morning 
paced  restlessly  up  and  down  the  walk  with  bowed 
head  and  frequent  glances  at  the  city  wall,  now  swarm- 
ing with  soldiers.  But  no  one  told  us  of  the  fearful 
crisis  which  had  come  to  the  missionaries ;  that  they 
had  been  ordered  the  night  before  to  leave  us  and  flee 
to  Tientsin  with  all  of  the  other  foreigners  in  Peking. 
They  were  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  revoke  this 
decision  ;  but  the  hope  of  changing  the  plans  of  those 
in  authority  failed  them  at  last.  I  shall  never  forget 
Mrs.  Jewell's  face  when  she  returned  from  that  prayer- 
meeting  to  tell  us  about  the  situation.  War  had  been 
declared,  and  in  a  few  hours  the  whole  Chinese  army 
would  be  turned  against  us,  not  simply  untrained 
Boxer  hordes.  How  could  the  little  handful  of  armed 
missionaries  and  twenty  marines  protect  us?  Perhaps 
by  fleeing  into  the  streets,  a  few  of  us  might  escape. 
Or  we  could  sit  quietly  in  that  schoolroom  until  the 
Boxers  came.     Jesus  would  come  too,  and  we  need 


52        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

not  fear.  As  we  heard  her  talk,  heaven  seemed  nearer 
and  more  real  than  earth,  and  we  could  almost  see  the 
gates  swinging  open.  We  knew  that  many  of  our 
loved  ones  had  just  passed  through  those  gates  of 
pearl.  Perhaps  every  girl  in  that  company  was  an 
orphan,  or  would  be  soon.  A  few  girls  burst  into 
tears,  more  from  sympathy  with  our  grief-stricken 
teachers  than  from  fear  for  themselves ;  but  most  of 
us  were  perfectly  calm  when  we  knelt  together,  and 
our  teachers,  with  voices  trembling  with  emotion,  com- 
mended the  flocks  which  they  had  tended  so  lovingly 
to  the  care  of  the  Great  Shepherd. 

''While  we  were  still  kneeling,  another  teacher  came 
in,  calling  out  joyfully,  'We  are  all  to  go  to  the  lega- 
tions, and  our  Chinese  are  to  go  with  us.'  The  clouds 
had  parted  again,  and  we  saw  the  sun.  So  many  times 
those  days  we  had  said  to  our  teachers,  'We  will  not 
mind  it  so  much  if  we  can  all  die  together.' 

"The  American  captain  ordered  all  the  missionaries 
to  gather  at  the  gate,  counting  to  see  that  no  one  was 
missing  before  they  started  on  the  dangerous  walk  of 
nearly  a  mile  to  the  British  Legation.  Miss  Haven, 
of  our  Bridgman  School,  was  missing.  She  would 
not  leave  her  twenty  girls  to  take  that  journey  alone, 
and  had  crept  in  among  us  unobserved.  When  she 
led  us  out  into  the  street,  the  missionary  women  and 
children,  guarded  by  American  marines,  had  already 
filed  out.  We  followed,  circling  about  Miss  Haven,  lest 
the  marines  discover  her  and  force  her  to  go  ahead 
with  the  others.  After  we  schoolgirls  had  passed  the 
barricade  close  by  our  gate,  word  was  given  for  the 
hundreds  of  Chinese  men,  women,  and  children  to 
follow  us.  On  we  went  into  the  great  street,  almost 
deserted  now.  How  many  thousands  of  Boxers  would 
there  have  been  on  that  street  awaiting  us  if  they  had 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        53 

dreamed  of  our  exodus?  And  how  many  of  us  could 
have  escaped  them?  We  had  to  pass  within  a  stone's- 
throw  of  that  gate  tower  crowded  with  hundreds  of 
soldiers,  their  rifles  glittering  in  the  sun.  They  might 
have  picked  us  off  one  by  one,  for  we  were  absolutely 
defenseless.  We  could  hear  their  rude  laughter  as 
they  called  to  their  comrades  to  look  at  us,  and  one 
shouted  out,  'See  that  crowd  of  erh  mao-tzu!  Of 
what  use  is  their  running  all  over  creation  ?  Wherever 
they  go,  it  is  only  a  question  of  a  few  days  when  they 
will  all  be  killed.' 

"A  strange  calm  possessed  us.  Even  the  children 
did  not  cry,  and  hardly  a  woman  spoke.  The  French 
Legation  was  the  first  we  came  to,  and  the  French 
marines  stopped  us  at  their  barricade,  as  they  had  not 
yet  received  orders  to  admit  the  Chinese  Christians. 
There  we  stood  for  a  long  time.  The  missionary 
women  had  all  passed  on  except  Miss  Haven,  who  was 
still  in  our  midst.  Soon  word  came  to  admit  us  within 
the  guarded  area.  We  breathed  more  freely  when 
we  stepped  within  that  cordon  guarded  by  four  hun- 
dred brave  foreign  soldiers.  It  was  a  space  of  nearly 
a  hundred  acres,  covering  several  streets.  Through 
a  winding  lane  we  were  led  into  a  sort  of  avenue,  the 
approach  to  the  palace  of  a  prince  located  just  across 
the  street  from  the  British  Legation.  There  the  mul- 
titude sat  down,  glad  of  the  trees  to  shade  us  from 
the  scorching  heat  of  the  midday  sun.  IMiss  Haven 
sat  under  the  trees  with  us.  What  a  strange,  strange 
sight ! — the  hundreds  with  no  food,  no  earthly  posses- 
sions except  the  little  we  had  carried  in  our  hands." 

This  is  my  schoolmate's  story.  Mine  of  the  morn- 
ing would  not  be  very  different  except  that  I  was  near 
the  end  of  that  procession  with  the  women  and  children, 
and  could  see  some  of  the  missionaries  and  Chinese 


54        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

young  men  with  their  guns  guarding  the  rear,  i  sat 
under  the  trees  and  held  the  baby  awhile.  Poor,  tired, 
hungry  children,  with  no  beds  to  lie  on,  no  water  to 
drink !  How  long  must  we  stay  there  with  no  roof 
over  our  heads?  We  looked  at  the  two  Japanese  sol- 
diers guarding  the  gate  at  the  end  of  the  avenue,  and 
wondered  if  they  could  keep  back  a  crowd  of  Boxers 
if  they  tried  to  rush  in  and  kill  us.  How  glad  we  were 
to  welcome  some  missionaries  who  came  over  from 
the  British  Legation  to  help  and  encourage  us !  They 
staid  with  us  under  the  trees  until  Professor  James 
came  with  a  key  and  opened  the  great  gate  leading  to 
the  prince's  palace. 

This  palace  was  made  up  of  quadrangle  after  quad- 
rangle of  low,  brick  buildings,  with  a  large  paved 
court  in  the  center.  The  first  court  was  occupied  by 
a  thousand  six  hundred  Catholics,  some  of  them  terribly 
wounded  and  burned,  who  had  been  rescued  from  the 
Boxers  two  or  three  days  before.  How  forlorn  they 
looked,  sitting  there  on  the  brick  floors !  The  second 
quadrangle  was  to  be  our  home.  The  long  lines  of 
buildings  on  the  right  and  left  as  we  entered  had  been 
used  for  storehouses,  and  the  dust  lay  thick  over  every- 
thing. The  main  building  facing  us  was  a  great  hall. 
How  glad  we  were  when  some  one  who  had  gone 
exploring  a  little  side  court  called  out,  "Here  is  a  big 
kitchen,  with  stove  and  everything  that 's  needed  for 
cooking !"  There  was  also  an  immense  kettle  of  cooked 
rice,  which  the  prince's  servants  had  not  had  time  to 
eat  before  taking  their  hurried  flight.  Another  mis- 
sionary soon  found  a  well ;  still  another  discovered 
great  piles  of  coal.  Surely  God  was  caring  for  us 
and  feeding  us,  even  as  he  fed  Elijah  of  old.  There 
were  felts  and  cushions,  too,  and  soon  the  rooms  were 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        55 

swept  out  and  the  tired  children  and  sick  women  could 
lie  down.  The  schoolgirls  were  led  into  the  great 
hall,  which  was  one  immense  room,  and  soon  some 
straw  was  strewn  over  the  brick  floor  which  was  to  be 
their  bed.  There  was  hardly  room  for  all  of  the  women 
and  children  to  crowd  into  the  side  rooms  of  the  court 
and  under  the  porches,  so  Miss  Haven  let  me  go  in 
with  my  schoolmates. 

Four  o'clock  came.  Most  of  the  men,  except  those 
who  were  sick  or  feeble,  had  gone  with  some  mission- 
aries to  grain-shops  to  get  rice  and  flour.  Four  or 
five  of  the  missionary  ladies  were  working  to  make 
us  as  comfortable  as  possible  in  our  strange  new  home. 
Suddenly  there  came  a  sound  which  our  ears  had  never 
heard  before,  and  spent  bullets  began  to  rattle  down 
on  the  roofs  over  our  heads.  All  who  were  not  work- 
ing instinctively  knelt  in  prayer.  There  is  something 
terrible  in  the  crack  of  thousands  of  rifles  and  the 
sound  of  bullets  whizzing  through  the  air.  But  we 
soon  grew  used  to  the  sound,  and  during  that  first 
hour  of  the  battle's  din  there  were  few  even  of  those 
tired  mothers  and  hungry  children  who  gave  way  to 
tears.  The  bullets  came  from  the  northeast,  where 
Chinese  soldiers  and  Boxers  were  attacking  the  Aus- 
trian Legation.  In  about  an  hour  some  men  came  for 
our  missionary  friends,  saying  that  the  British  Lega- 
tion might  be  attacked  any  minute  and  then  it  would 
be  very  dangerous  crossing  the  wide,  moated  street  on 
the  west,  which  separated  us  from  the  British  Legation. 
I  think  they  all  started  at  once,  except  Miss  Haven 
and  Mrs.  Jewell,  who  staid  back  among  their  school- 
girls. A  little  later  the  missionaries  came  back  for 
them,  and  I  saw  Miss  Haven  talking  very  earnestly. 
Though  I  could  not  understand  what  she  was  saying. 


56        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

I  know  that  she  was  pleading  to  be  allowed  to  stay 
with  us.  But  they  must  have  convinced  her  that  it  was 
not  best,  and  soon  she  made  her  way  across  the  wide 
street  down  which  the  bullets  were  already  flying. 

Can  you  picture  a  hundred  and  twenty  girls  in  that 
hall,  with  its  lofty  ceilings  and  painted  shrines  ?  There 
we  lay  down  on  the  straw  at  night,  happy  if  we  had  a 
quilt  for  a  cover.  There  our  food  was  brought  to  us 
twice  a  day.  There,  day  after  day,  night  after  night, 
we  heard  the  blast  of  trumpets  calling  to  an  attack, 
then  thousands  of  rifles  would  pour  out  their  deadly 
fire,  thousands  of  voices,  cruel  with  hate,  would  cry, 
''Kill !  kill !  kill !"  Our  hall  had  windows  only  on  the 
south  side,  the  direction  from  which  the  fewest  bullets 
came,  and  the  thick  brick  walls  were  a  perfect  protec- 
tion. We  learned  to  lie  down  quietly  and  sleep  while 
the  bullets  were  speeding  through  the  air  like  sleet. 
But  we  knew  that  between  us  and  a  terrible  death 
there  was  only  that  compound  wall,  perhaps  fifteen 
feet  high,  and  a  few  score  of  Japanese  and  Italian 
soldiers  who  had  been  appointed  to  guard  the  palace. 
Let  a  break  be  made  anywhere  in  that  wall,  and  the 
enemy  would  rush  in  like  a  flood. 

Often  the  cry,  ''Fire!  Fire!"  would  burst  on  our 
ears;  then  we  would  hear  the  rush  of  feet  as  men  ran 
to  the  rescue.  If  we  stepped  out  we  would  see  flames 
bursting  up  a  few  rods  to  the  north  or  east,  where  the 
Boxers  had  set  fire  to  buildings  just  outside  our  wall, 
or  to  one  of  our  own  gateways.  Then  the  suffocating 
smoke  would  envelop  us,  the  exultant  cries  of  the 
Boxers  would  greet  us. 

In  a  few  days  there  came  another  sound  which  I 
had  never  heard  before.  It  was  the  boom,  boom  of 
cannon,  the  swift  rush  of  shell  through  the  air,  the 
dash  of  hundreds  of  pieces  of  shrapnel  on  the  roof. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        57 

Later  they  learned  to  aim  lower,  and  the  exploding 
shell  dashed  through  our  roof  with  deafening  din, 
scattering  down  plaster  over  our  heads. 

Well  I  remember  one  dark  night  when  they  told 
us  that  the  northern  gate  of  the  palace  grounds,  sepa- 
rated from  us  by  three  unoccupied  quadrangles  of 
buildings,  was  burning.  It  seemed  as  if  hell  had 
opened  its  mouth,  pouring  out  flames  and  the  murder- 
ous cries  of  demons.  "Are  you  afraid?"  I  asked  the 
twelve-year-old  girl  lying  by  my  side.  *'No,"  she  said, 
**I  do  n't  think  Jesus  will  let  them  get  in  to  kill  us." 
That  long  night,  as  we  lay  on  the  hard  brick  floor,  we 
tried  to  calm  our  hearts  by  taking  fast  hold  on  the  love 
and  power  of  Jesus.  We  could  never  light  a  lamp. 
Sharpshooters  were  always  concealed  in  trees  and  on 
the  roofs  of  houses  near  by,  and  a  light  was  a  target 
for  them.  We  had  only  a  few  Bibles  among  us.  But 
Chinese  students  commit  to  memory  book  after  book  of 
the  Bible,  and  as  we  sat  in  the  darkness  with  hands 
clasped  in  one  another's,  we  would  repeat  the  precious 
promises  which  wei  e  illumined  with  new  meaning  now. 

It  was  Sunday,  our  fifth  day  in  the  palace.  Did 
the  Boxers  scheme  to  make  the  sacred  day  especially 
horrible?  Since  that  afternoon  when  they  made  the 
first  attack,  not  an  hour  had  passed  without  hearing 
the  crack  of  a  rifie.  This  Sunday  morning  it  seemed 
as  if  there  must  be  legions  of  Boxers  surging  up 
against  our  wall.  Many  of  the  Chinese  Christians  were 
in  the  quadrangles  north  of  us  where  the  attack  was 
fiercest,  building  barricades  and  fighting  the  fires  which 
were  burning  the  northern  part  of  the  palace.  Dead 
and  dying  men  were  carried  through  our  yard,  two 
of  them  Chinese  pastors.  Then  we  thought  that  the 
enemy  must  have  broken  in,  that  the  dreaded  moment 
of  massacre  had  come.     We  had  no  other  place  of 


S8        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

refuge.  We  could  only  sit  and  wait.  A  strong  voice 
started,  'Traise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow;" 
those  near  joined  us,  and  the  music  spread  from  build- 
ing to  building,  until  it  echoed  from  all  sides  of  the 
quadrangle.  The  voice  of  battle  was  drowned  by  the 
voice  of  praise,  and  all  hearts  felt  calmer. 

We  heard  afterwards  that  the  Japanese  soldiers 
who  were  fighting  for  our  protection  heard  the  singing 
and  asked  what  it  meant.  When  they  were  told,  they 
stood  still  and  listened  for  a  few  seconds,  then  ap- 
plauded. 

Soon  after  this,  one  of  the  missionaries  who  often 
crossed  from  the  British  Legation  to  care  for  the 
refugees,  appeared  at  the  door  of  our  hall.  *'You  are 
all  to  follow  me  to  a  place  across  the  street  adjoining 
the  British  Legation.  Come  at  once."  We  had  little 
to  gather  up,  and  soon  we  were  out  of  the  shelter  of 
the  walls,  crossing  that  street,  so  often  swept  by  bullets, 
then  walking  down  it  about  a  hundred  yards,  when  we 
were  led  into  a  deserted  shop  southwest  of  the  British 
Legation.  Behind  us  followed  the  women  and  chil- 
dren. It  was  perhaps  half  an  hour  before  all  had 
finished  that  perilous  passage,  yet  not  one  was 
wounded.  Our  enemies  were  concentrated  on  the  north 
of  the  palace  and  the  west  of  the  British  Legation. 
Before  we  reached  the  gateway  which  admitted  us  to 
our  new  refuge  we  saw  some  of  our  dear  teachers 
standing  there  to  welcome  us.  There  was  only  time 
for  a  smile  and  now  and  then  a  little  hand-touch  as 
we  hastened  in.  We  had  been  only  a  little  while  in 
the  buildings  southwest  of  the  British  Legation  to 
which  our  teachers  led  us  when  flames  burst  out  close 
by.  The  crackling  could  be  plainly  heard;  the  smoke 
strangled  us  so  that  we  could  hardly  breathe.    So  we 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        59 

were  led  through  a  little  alley  into  buildings  farther 
away  from  the  fire. 

After  a  few  hours  the  attack  on  the  palace  died 
down.  Sir  Claude  MacDonald  decided  that  that  place 
must  be  held  at  any  cost,  as  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
it  would  be  a  terrible  vantage-ground  for  attacks  on 
the  British  Legation.  He  promised  that  henceforth 
re-enforcements  should  be  sent  over  whenever  the 
Japanese  and  Italians  were  hard  pressed.  So  in  the 
afternoon  the  women  and  children  recrossed  the  street 
to  their  former  quarters.  Still  a  wonderful  providence 
protected  them.  About  five  minutes  after  the  last  one 
had  passed  safely  in,  a  mule  was  shot  dead  on  that 
very  street. 

I  never  saw  the  palace  again.  Two  or  three  days 
before,  Mrs.  Kung,  who  was  quite  sick,  and  her  two 
little  children,  had  been  taken  to  the  British  Legation ; 
and  one  of  the  missionary  ladies  got  permission  on 
Sunday  for  me  to  go  to  their  strange  abiding-place 
to  help  take  care  of  the  children.  Near  the  center 
of  the  British  Legation  stands  a  great  pavilion,  its 
tiled  roof  resting  on  massive  pillars.  Here  a  motley 
crowd  had  taken  refuge.  The  center  of  the  pavilion 
was  occupied  by  guests  from  the  French  Hotel,  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  ate  and  slept  here.  On 
one  side  was  a  group  of  Chinese  Catholic  nuns,  and 
close  beside  them  I  found  my  three  friends.  There 
the  roof  sheltered  them  from  the  sun  except  in  the 
afternoon,  wdien  the  fierce  heat  would  drive  us  to  seek 
the  shade  of  the  chapel,  only  a  few  feet  away.  There 
we  saw  the  seventy  missionaries  who  lived  in  the 
chapel,  the  men  always  rushing  from  point  to  point 
to  superintend  work  on  fortifications  or  food  supply, 
the  women  helping  to  cook  their  meals  over  little  Chinese 


6o        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

stoves  set  up  in  the  yard,  or  sewing  on  the  thousands 
on  thousands  of  sandbags  used  in  building  barricades. 
The  children  played  about  the  yard  when  the  bullets 
were  not  too  numerous.  The  sound  of  laughter  some- 
times greeted  us,  and  the  voice  of  singing,  as  many  of 
the  missionaries  rested  their  busy  hands  and  gathered 
for  morning  prayers.  There  we  saw  company  after 
company  of  Chinese  men  filing  to  places  of  danger  to 
work  on  fortifications.  There,  time  after  time,  I  saw 
rich  or  titled  people  standing  in  a  line  with  the  dirti-est 
Chinese  coolies  passing  buckets  to  put  out  the  fires, 
which  more  than  once  beat  their  way  to  the  houses 
on  the  edge  of  the  legations.  There,  all  day  long, 
we  could  see  men  digging  dirt  and  filling  sandbags. 
Hardly  a  day  passed  when  we  did  not  see  a  stretcher 
bearing  a  bloodstained  soldier  to  the  hospital  just  across 
the  tennis-court,  and  sometimes  one  would  follow  an- 
other in  quick  succession,  until  we  wondered  how  soon 
our  four  hundred  brave  defenders  would  be  reduced 
to  a  mere  handful.  We  sat  on  the  brick  floor  of  the 
pavilion  by  day.  By  night  we  spread  our  quilts  there, 
and  lay  down,  with  the  stars  shining  in  our  faces. 
Every  night  was  made  hideous  by  attacks,  and  in  the 
daytime  we  would  watch  the  bullets  rebound  from 
our  pavilion  roof  or  snip  off  twigs  from  the  trees 
over  our  heads. 

All  day  long  the  group  of  Catholic  sisters  sewed 
on  sandbags,  and  when  Mrs.  Kung  got  better  we  sewed 
too.  The  sisters  told  us  of  the  terrible  day  when  they 
were  taken  to  the  legation.  Boxers  broke  into  the 
cathedral,  where  about  two  thousand  had  taken  refuge, 
some  foreign  priests  and  nuns  with  them.  Some  es- 
caped into  the  street,  but  were  overtaken  and  slain. 
Hundreds  were  cut  down  in  the  cathedral  and  sur- 
rounding courts,  Boxer  boys  helping  to  do  the  children 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        6i 

to  death.  It  seemed  as  if  none  could  escape.  Then 
friends  came  to  their  rescue,  foreign  soldiers  and  some 
foreigners  who  were  not  soldiers,  among  them  a  plucky 
little  American  woman  with  her  rifle.  Later  a  second 
party  went  to  the  streets  near  the  cathedral  where 
many  Catholics  were  still  being  hunted  down  like  wild 
beasts,  and  gathered  in  more  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren whom  flame  and  sword  had  not  yet  devoured. 
They  pointed  out  their  venerable  French  priest,  who 
nearly  lost  his  reason  that  awful  day  and  had  not  en- 
tirely recovered  since. 

One  of  my  nights  in  this  pavilion  will  never  be 
forgotten.  Dark  thunderclouds  rolled  up  from  the  west 
as  the  daylight  faded.  There  was  an  ominous  quiet  all 
about  us.  Then  lightning  flashes  illummed  the  dark- 
ness. Suddenly  the  roar  of  the  storm  broke  upon  us, 
and  with  it  the  roar  of  the  battle.  We  could  not  tell 
whether  we  were  listening  to  the  artillery  of  heaven 
or  of  earth.  The  hosts  encamped  on  all  sides  of  the 
legations  poured  in  their  lead,  volley  after  volley.  For 
hours  the  battle  raged,  attack  following  attack.  The 
blast  of  a  bugle  summoned  to  the  bell-tower  a  few  rods 
away  from  our  pavilion  every  man  in  the  legation  who 
had  a  weapon.  There  they  stood  ready  to  go  to  any 
point  where  the  bloodthirsty  hordes  seemed  likely  to 
break  through  our  lines. 

It  was  a  fearsome  night;  but  the  danger  passed, 
and  the  morning  dawned  fair  and  beautiful.  Soon 
I  learned  that  all  the  schoolgirls  had  been  brought  over 
the  evening  before  to  the  buildings  south  of  the  lega- 
tion, which  they  had  occupied  the  previous  Sunday. 
I  heard  them  tell  their  story  later.  Fire  after  fire  was 
started  in  the  northern  part  of  the  palace,  each  one 
creeping  nearer,  until,  the  afternoon  before  their  flight, 
the  fierce  flames  kindled  in  the  great  quadrangle  just 


62        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

north  of  their  hall.  The  smoke  was  blinding.  There 
was  a  pandemonium  of  crackling  flames,  zipping  bul- 
lets, screaming  shells,  and,  worst  of  all,  cries  of  "Good ! 
good !"  from  their  enemies.  The  Japanese,  and  the 
volunteers  helping  them,  were  making  a  stiff  fight; 
but  step  by  step  they  were  being  driven  southward. 
So  the  same  night  that  the  girls  took  their  flight,  most 
of  the  Chinese  families  in  the  same  quadrangle  forsook 
the  palace  for  small,  damp  buildings  still  further  south. 

Within  a  few  days  I  was  with  my  schoolmates,  and 
the  Kungs  found  a  new  home  in  a  small  room  close  by. 
Rains  had  driven  us  out  of  our  pavilion. 

I  can  not  tell  the  story  of  the  long  weeks  that  fol- 
lowed. Twenty-two  of  us  were  crowded  into  small 
rooms.  Our  bill  of  fare  consisted  of  whole-wheat 
porridge  or  coarse  Graham  mush,  with  musty  yellow 
rice  for  an  occasional  luxury,  while  the  sick  ones  were 
favored  with  horse-soup !  The  afternoon  sun  beat 
pitilessly  into  our  rooms,  bullets  still  rattled  down 
among  us,  and  shells  sometimes  came  our  way.  Still 
we  were  no  longer  in  the  storm-center,  and  not  one 
.of  us  was  wounded;  not  one  died  during  the  summer. 
Our  friends  across  the  street  were  not  so  favorably 
situated.  Several  women  and  girls  were  killed  or 
wounded.  The  pestilential  air,  breeding  swarms  of 
flies,  the  brick  floor  on  which  they  slept  reeking  with 
moisture,  the  coarse,  distasteful  food,  made  life  very 
hard  for  the  little  children.  Nearly  every  day  a  new 
grave  was  made,  one  mother  losing  two  children  during 
the  sorrowful  months,  and  there  were  few  homes  which 
death  did  not  visit. 

Several  times  a  day  our  teachers  would  come  to 
see  us,  and  help  us  pass  the  tedious  hours  as  we  sewed 
on  the  sandbags.  The  first  question  would  always  be, 
"Is  there  any  news  of  the  relief  army?"     How  glad 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        63 

we  were  on  the  i8th  of  July  when,  for  the  first  time 
in  over  a  month,  a  message  reached  us  from  Tientsin. 
Afterwards  we  again  knew  the  heartsickness  of  hope 
deferred,  as  week  after  week  passed  and  no  certain 
tidings  of  deHverance  came.  Again  and  again  our  ears 
deceived  us,  and  we  were  sure  we  heard  the  roar  of 
distant  artillery.  We  heard  mines  exploding  under 
the  French  Legation.  Were  they  mining  under  our 
place  too?  Our  provisions  would  last  only  about  two 
weeks  longer.  Then  word  came  that  a  great  army  was 
leaving  Tientsin,  that  they  were  half  way  to  Peking. 

The  night  of  August  13th  the  attacks  were  terrible. 
Perhaps  ten  thousand  soldiers  and  scores  of  cannon 
were  pouring  shot  and  shell  into  the  legations  from 
all  sides  except  the  south.  Yet  we  were  so  used  to  the 
danger,  we  felt  so  sure  that  the  One  who  had  kept  us 
through  so  many  terrible  perils  would  keep  us  still, 
that  most  of  us  slept  peacefully  while  the  fierce  con- 
flict raged  around  us.  In  the  early  morning  hours  we 
heard  a  new  sound,  but  hardly  dared  hope  it  was  the 
artillery  of  our  rescuers  until  one  of  our  teachers,  her 
face  beaming  with  joy,  brought  us  the  good  news. 
For  hours  we  listened  to  the  bombarding  of  the  city 
gates.  Afternoon  came,  and  suddenly  from  the  British 
Legation  we  heard  cheer  after  cheer.  The  relief  army 
was  inside  the  legation.  God  had  delivered  us,  and 
our  enemies  were  fleeing. 

The  week  that  followed  was  a  strange  one.  We 
were  between  the  British  and  Russian  Legations,  and 
the  coarse-faced  Cossacks  had  hardly  filed  into  their 
legation,  before  some  of  them  appeared  in  our  yard, 
frightening  us  more  than  Boxers  would  have  done. 
Notices  posted  on  our  gate  failed  to  keep  out  these 
ruffians,  so  some  of  the  missionaries  staid  with  us 
constantly  to  protect  us  from  these  foreign  soldiers. 


64        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Then  the  Russians  demanded  the  rooms  which  we 
occupied  for  barracks.  The  missionaries  must  find 
a  new  home  for  us.  So  six  days  after  the  siege  was 
reHeved,  the  homeless  ones  had  found  new  abiding- 
places.  We  twenty-two  girls  of  the  Bridgman  School 
were  back  close  by  the  desolate  ruins  of  our  former 
schoolhouse,  in  the  forsaken  residence  of  a  Mongol 
prince.  Before  our  school  broke  up  last  June,  his  place 
had  been  a  Boxer  camp.  We  saw  the  great  kettles 
in  which  their  food  was  cooked.  We  saw  great  piles 
of  swords,  some  of  them  bloodstained.  Was  it  the 
blood  of  our  own  mission  friends? 

During  those  weeks  after  we  left  our  prison-house, 
joy  and  grief  came  to  us  hand  in  hand.  One  day 
there  would  be  a  touching  meeting  between  parents 
and  daughters  who  had  given  one  another  up  as  lost; 
the  next  a  friend  would  come  to  tell  some  one  of  our 
number  that  she  was  an  orphan.  We  heard  of  the 
martyrdom  of  our  beloved  Ruth,  valedictorian  of  our 
last  class,  who  died  with  our  missionaries  in  Shansi, 
where  she  was  teaching,  far  away  from  home  and 
friends.  About  twenty  of  our  schoolmates  are  among 
those  who  "out  of  the  great  tribulation"  have  passed 
to  their  place  beside  the  great  White  Throne.  W^e 
did  not  hear  of  one  who  denied  Jesus.  Three  have 
come  back  to  us  after  months  of  hiding  in  deserts 
and  mountains  and  caves. 

So  often  during  the  two  months  of  the  siege  we 
thought  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  of  how  God 
led  them  through  the  great  and  terrible  wilderness. 
Was  it  not  like  crossing  the  Red  Sea  when  we  went 
from  the  Methodist  mission  to  the  legations,  and  God 
held  back  our  enemies  ?  God  provided  food  and  water 
for  us  in  such  a  wonderful  way;  it  made  us  think 
of  the  manna  and  the  water  from  the  rock.     If  it 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS       65 

had  not  happened  that  thousands  of  bushels  of  wheat 
were  stored  in  a  government  granary  close  by  just 
two  weeks  before  the  siege,  I  am  sure  we  should  have 
starved  to  death.  And  when  our  enemies  tried  to 
destroy  us  by  fire,  time  and  time  again  God  sent  the 
wind  to  fight  for  us,  changing  its  direction  so  that  the 
flames  blew  away  from  us. 

''Blessed  be  the  Lord :  for  he  hath  showed  me  his 
marvelous  kindness  in  a  strong  city." 

Part  II 

the;  work  of  the  christians 

In  the  preceding  story  of  the  siege  is  given  a 
picture  of  that  fateful  morning,  June  20th,  when  the 
missionaries  of  four  Boards  (Presbyterian,  Methodist, 
American  Board,  and  London  Mission)  were  gathered 
at  the  Methodist  mission.  The  night  before,  the  order 
had  come  for  them  to  prepare  to  start  toward  Tientsin 
the  next  day.  What  would  become  of  the  seven  hun- 
dred Protestant  Christians,  men,  women,  and  little 
children,  who  had  taken  refuge  with  them?  What 
would  become  of  the  three  or  four  thousand  Roman 
Catholic  Christians  who  were  gathered  in  the  north 
cathedral  and  within  the  legation  area?  This  ques- 
tion was  asked  of  the  dean  of  the  diplomatic  corps, 
the  representative  of  a  Catholic  power,  and  he  replied 
impatiently,  "That  is  nothing  to  me !"  When  mission- 
aries sent  in  impassioned  appeals,  other  ministers  were 
more  sympathetic,  but  all  recognized  that  in  this  crisis 
they  owed  a  duty  only  to  their  own  countrymen.  God 
led  his  people  out  of  this  deep  darkness  by  a  strange 
path.  A  few  hours  before  the  time  set  for  the  for- 
eigners to  leave  Peking,  the  German  minister,  when 
passing  through  the  streets  of  Peking  under  the  pro- 
5 


66        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

tection  of  soldiers  appointed  by  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment, was  murdered  by  a  miUtary  official.  This  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  diplomats ;  the  decision  to  intrust  them- 
selves to  the  escort  of  a  Chinese  army  was  revoked, 
and  the  order  went  forth  for  all  to  gather  in  the 
British  Legation.  Then  arose  the  question,  "Must  the 
missionaries  forsake  the  seven  hundred  helpless  refu- 
gees at  the  Methodist  mission,  or  will  they  too  find  a 
refuge  within  that  area  guarded  by  foreign  marines?" 
The  response  was  not  immediate ;  the  ministers  felt 
that  in  extending  their  lines  of  protection,  the  lives 
of  all  would  be  endangered.  Dr.  Morrison,  of  the 
London  Times,  and  Professor  James,  of  the  Imperial 
University,  were  the  agents  used  by  God  to  open  to 
the  native  Christians  the  palace  which  Prince  Su  had 
abandoned  that  very  morning.  A  wide  street,  with 
a  moat,  separated  it  from  the  British  Legation,  and  in 
its  spacious  courts  the  Christians  found  shelter  until 
flames  kindled  by  the  Boxers  had  devoured  all  the 
buildings  except  the  great  gateway. 

It  was  part  of  God's  plan  that  these  children  of 
his  love  should  be  saved.  Without  these  strong  hands 
and  brave  hearts,  there  would  not  have  been  salvation 
for  a  single  foreigner  in  Peking.  In  the  midday  heat, 
in  the  drenching  night  rains,  under  storm  of  shot 
and  shell,  they  worked  on  the  fortifications.  They 
fought  fire,  they  filled  sandbags,  they  built  barricades, 
sometimes  amid  a  hail  of  brickbats  thrown  by  hun- 
dreds of  ruthless  foes  separated  from  them  only  by 
a  brick  wall.  They  dug  trenches  so  close  to  the  enemy 
that  they  could  hear  their  voices  in  conversation. 
Weakened  from  lack  of  nourishing  food,  wearied  by 
unaccustomed  labor,  the  teacher,  the  student,  the  doc- 
tor, the  pastor,  the  merchant,  may  sometimes  have 
seemed  lazy  to  his  overseer;  occasional  shirks  were 


TsiNc;   MiN(;   a  r    Looi'iioi.i.   i\    rkixcK   Si's    I'ai.ace 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        67 

not  wanting  among  the  hundreds ;  the  Catholics  seemed 
in  some  cases  less  ready  to  incur  hardship  than  the 
Protestants.  Wonderful  lessons  in  patience  they 
learned  those  days.  Sometimes  they  served  under 
Egyptian  taskmasters,  and  more  than  one  felt  the  cruel 
blow  or  the  brutal  kick. 

The  faithful  labor  of  the  Chinese  Christians  was 
appreciated  by  others  besides  the  missionaries,  as  the 
following  will  prove.  At  one  time  of  great  peril,  when 
it  seemed  as  if  the  lines  must  be  narrowed  and  the 
foreign  guard  withdrawn  from  the  palace  of  Prince 
Su,  Dr.  Morrison  said,  ''The  native  Christians  have 
saved  this  place,  and  there  is  nothing  to  do  but  to 
stand  or  fall  together."  A  letter  from  Minister  Conger 
to  "the  Besieged  American  IMissionaries,"  written 
after  the  relief  army  reached  Peking,  began  thus : 

*To  one  and  all  of  you,  so  providentially  saved 
from  threatened  massacre,  I  beg  in  this  hour  of  our 
deliverance  to  express  what  I  know  to  be  the  universal 
sentiment  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  the  sincere  appre- 
ciation of,  and  gratitude  for,  the  inestimable  help  which 
you  and  the  native  Christians  under  your  charge  have 
rendered  toward  our  preservation.  Without  your  in- 
telligent and  successful  planning,  and  the  uncomplain- 
ing execution  of  the  Chinese,  I  believe  our  salvation 
would  have  been  impossible." 

If  Major  Conger  appreciated  the  debt  which  he 
and  his  owed  to  these  patient  toilers,  not  less  did  the 
Christians  love  and  honor  the  minister  who,  more 
than  any  other,  sought  to  save  them  from  a  horrible 
death.  In  the  American  Legation  in  Peking  hangs 
a  beautiful  tablet,  a  token  of  their  gratitude. 

Perhaps  it  will  make  the  work  of  the  native  Chris- 
tians more  real,  if  two  of  them  tell  in  their  own  words 
some  of  their   siege   experiences.     The  young   men, 


68        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

T'ui  Ming  and  Wang  Wen  Shun,  from  whose  stories 
extracts  are  taken,  had  just  graduated  from  the  North 
China  College  and  Theological  Seminary. 

e:xtracts  From  t'ui  ming's  stor^ 

"From  the  first  I  helped  on  guard  duty  at  night, 
though  not  yet  a  regularly-appointed  volunteer.  One 
night,  about  six  o'clock,  the  Japanese  asked  me  to  act 
as  sentry  at  a  street  corner  outside  our  regular  lines, 
about  three  hundred  yards  from  the  gate.  An  attack 
was  expected  from  the  east,  and  we  were  to  run  and 
give  warning  if  we  saw  the  enemy  coming.  Reaching 
my  post  I  crouched  by  a  wall,  stretching  out  my  head 
occasionally  to  get  a  view  of  the  street  down  which 
our  foes  might  come.  It  grew  dark.  A  sound  like 
hundreds  of  bricks  falling  close  by  made  my  heart 
beat  faster.  After  I  had  been  there  about  two  hours, 
rifle  volleys  and  a  tumult  of  voices  warned  me  that 
the  enemy  was  approaching.  Not  a  soul  was  in  sight 
on  the  two  streets  which  I  was  watching,  so  I  knew 
that  they  were  attacking  from  the  next  street  south. 
Could  I  get  to  the  palace  gate  ahead  of  them  ?  It  was 
too  dark  for  the  Japanese  sentries  at  the  gate  to  see  me 
wave  my  white  flag;  in  all  that  din  would  they  hear 
the  other  signal  agreed  upon,  clapping  my  hands? 
They  did  hear,  and  the  gates  swung  open  for  me  before 
the  Boxer  mob  was  upon  us. 

"During  those  first  days  I  also  worked  on  fortifi- 
cations at  the  British  Legation,  first  filling  sandbags 
and  carrying  them  on  my  shoulder  to  weak  points  in 
the  wall ;  then  I  was  set  to  work  to  help  dig  the  'tunnel.' 
In  crossing  the  street  eighty  yards  wide  between  the 
British  Legation  and  the  palace,  we  were  exposed  to 
a  raking  fire  from  the  Imperial  City  wall,  a  few  hun- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        69 

dred  yards  north  of  us.  For  safety  in  crossing  this 
street  a  passage  was  dug,  beginning  inside  the  legation, 
burrowing  under  its  high,  strong  brick  wall,  then  lead- 
ing down  into  the  dry  bed  of  the  canal  which  runs 
lengthwise  the  street.  We  had  a  Russian  overseer  that 
day,  and  he  knew  no  pity.  The  roughest  farmer  and 
the  most  delicate  Chinese  pastor  or  teacher  who  had 
never  before  done  a  day's  manual  labor  were  alike  to 
him.  We  felt  the  fatigue  especially  because  of  the  lack 
of  the  nourishing  food  to  which  we  were  accustomed, 
and  the  intense  heat.  We  were  perfectly  safe  while 
working  at  the  end  of  the  tunnel  in  the  legation ;  but 
soon  it  was  necessary  to  start  the  digging  just  outside 
the  wall  in  range  of  the  Chinese  soldiers.  I  assure 
you  we  did  n't  stop  digging  to  rest  after  the  bullets 
began  to  rain  about  us !  Soon  we  had  a  hole  in  which 
we  could  crouch  and  continue  our  work  in  comparative 
safety. 

''After  the  British  Legation  had  been  in  the  greatest 
danger  from  fires  started  immediately  outside  the  wall, 
the  order  was  given  to  go  out  and  tear  down  a  temple 
and  other  adjoining  buildings  to  which  we  feared  the 
Boxers  would  set  fire.  Here  our  leader  was  a  brave 
young  English  clergyman,  who  always  took  the 
hardest  work  and  the  most  dangerous  post  himself. 
The  cutting  out  of  the  great  temple  pillars  was  no  easy 
task.  The  last  stroke  of  the  ax  on  one  of  them  brought 
the  roof  crashing  down  over  the  head  of  a  comrade. 
We  feared  that  he  was  crushed  to  death,  but  soon  we 
heard  him  calling  for  help.  The  timbers  had  fallen  in 
such  a  way  as  to  protect  him,  and  a  few  days  of  careful 
nursing  in  the  hospital  set  him  on  his  feet  again. 

"To  the  Japanese  and  Italian  marines  was  intrusted 
the  task  of  guarding  the  palace.  They  lost  heavily 
during  the  first  fearful  days.     In  fact,  during  the  first 


70        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

few  weeks,  of  the  legation  guards  of  about  four  hun- 
dred marines,  forty-one  had  been  killed  and  sixty-nine 
wounded.  After  several  of  us  Chinese  young  men  had 
helped  with  our  own  shotguns  for  a  few  days.  Colonel 
Shiba  asked  us  to  put  ourselves  under  his  command 
as  regular  volunteers,  and  armed  us  with  Mauser  rifles 
obtained  from  the  British  Legation.  The  first  ten  days 
I  was  on  guard  half  the  time,  night  and  day,  on  our 
northern  line  of  defense,  where  fierce  attacks  were 
constantly  made  on  the  palace,  and  we  were  gradually 
driven  back  by  the  flames.  The  Boxers  and  soldiers 
prepared  missiles  of  inflammable  material  soaked  in 
kerosene,  and,  by  firing  them  from  a  mortar,  succeeded 
in  igniting  buildings  within  our  line  of  defense.  After 
we  had  lost  our  three  northern  quadrangles,  with  the 
exception  of  sentry  posts  in  the  western  line  of  build- 
ings, we  had  one  of  the  ridiculous  experiences  of  this 
unique,  hand-to-hand  contest.  Several  of  us  Chinese 
volunteers  were  on  guard  in  the  line  of  buildings  on 
the  west  side  of  the  quadrangle  first  occupied  by  our 
women  and  children,  who  had  fled  to  another  refuge 
just  before  the  northern  line  of  buildings  had  been 
burned.  For  two  or  three  hours  an  ominous  quiet 
reigned.  About  two  in  the  afternoon  we  saw  smoke 
rising  from  one  of  the  houses  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  quadrangle.  Rushing  to  the  rescue  with  our  ever- 
ready  fire-extinguisher,  we  discovered  their  new  de- 
vice for  burning  us  out.  They  had  prepared  a  rod 
fully  thirty  or  forty  feet  long ;  the  bamboo  stick  which 
formed  the  end  had  a  sharp  point  inserted  in  it  and 
was  wrapped  with  cotton  saturated  with  kerosene. 
This  section  was  bound  to  the  long  rod  with  strings 
which  soon  burned  away,  leaving  the  torch  fast  in  the 
wood  of  the  roof.  We  had  a  stiff  fight  with  that  fire, 
but  succeeded  in  extinguishing  it. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        71 

"The  most  dangerous  sentry  post  was  in  the  cen- 
tral quadrangle  behind  a  short,  loopholed  barricade, 
which  we  reached  by  going  through  the  western  line 
of  buildings,  then  making  a  dash  of  about  twenty  yards 
through  the  open.  This  part  was  important,  as  it 
commanded  a  view  of  the  attacking  Chinese,  and  we 
volunteers  were  responsible  for  it  night  and  day.  We 
could  never  look  through  a  loophole  without  danger 
of  receiving  a  bullet  in  the  face,  so  a  mirror  was  placed 
near  the  loophole  in  such  a  position  that  it  would  re- 
flect the  advancing  enemy,  and  we  would  sit  hour  by 
hour  with  our  eyes  fixed  on  this  mirror.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  July  15th  the  young  man  on  guard  there  rushed 
back  with  the  announcement  that  Chinese  soldiers  were 
stealing  toward  us  from  the  quadrangle  north.  One 
of  the  volunteers  named  Liu  snatched  up  his  rifle  and 
started  for  the  abandoned  post.  He  had  taken  only 
two  or  three  steps  into  the  open  when  he  fell,  shot 
through  the  leg.  It  was  many  months  before  he  was 
able  to  walk  again. 

"Soon  after  this  the  fierce  attacks  ceased,  and  we 
had  our  so-called  armistice.  On  the  19th,  five  eggs 
were  purchased  of  a  Chinese  soldier  near  the  French 
barricade.  This  created  quite  a  sensation  in  the  British 
Legation.  Children  were  dying  for  lack  of  proper 
food,  and  the  forty-eight  patients  in  the  hospital  would 
feel  that  they  had  a  fresh  lease  of  life  if  eggs  could 
be  set  before  them.  My  duty  from  that  time  on  was  to 
station  myself  at  some  point  where  I  might  communi- 
cate with  Chinese  soldiers,  and  watch  for  possible  egg- 
sellers.  The  first  day  Colonel  Shiba  and  I  secured 
seventy  or  eighty  eggs.  The  soldiers  would  slip  up, 
one  or  two  at  a  time,  usually  with  the  eggs  in  their 
girdles,  and,  in  the  shelter  of  the  barricade,  eggs  and 
dollars  would  exchange  hands.    A  few  days  later,  when 


^2        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

a  Chinese  Catholic,  who  was  helping  me,  and  a  peddler 
were  in  the  midst  of  a  trade,  a  sharpshooter  wounded 
both  of  them.  This  put  a  damper  on  the  ^^^  business. 
"One  day  I  was  sent  to  another  point  west  of  the 
British  Legation  to  buy  eggs.  Chinese  soldiers  were 
showing  themselves  freely  about  their  barricades,  and 
carrying  away  their  dead.  Inspired  with  a  false  con- 
fidence, in  the  armistice,  I  stood  head  and  shoulders 
above  our  barricade,  beckoning  to  some  possible  egg- 
sellers.  A  deafening  roar  burst  on  my  ears,  a  bullet 
grazed  my  hair,  and  I  tumbled  back  off  that  barricade 
in  a  hurry." 

EXTRACTS   FROM   WANG  WEIN   SHUn's   STORY 

"On  June  26th  I  was  at  the  British  Legation,  when 
a  call  came  for  a  large  company  of  Chinese  to  go  to  the 
American  Legation  to  work  on  barricades.  We  went 
by  a  sheltered  way  through  the  Russian  Legation. 
Then,  without  stopping  in  the  American  Legation, 
our  leader  marched  us  to  the  wide  street  separating 
the  legation  from  the  city  wall,  which  was  sixty  feet 
high  and  forty  feet  wide  on  the  top.  We  were  to 
mount  the  wall  by  the  Vamp,'  or  inclined  ascent,  to 
help  build  the  first  barricade  on  its  top. 

"I  had  heard  of  the  thrilHng  scene  enacted  there 
the  day  before.  The  wall  was  then  occupied  by  Chinese 
soldiers.  A  few  tens  of  marines,  most  of  them  Amer- 
icans, accompanied  by  about  seventy  Chinese  Chris- 
tians, made  a  rush  from  the  shelter  of  the  American 
Legation,  pushing  the  Colt  rapid-firing  gun  up  the 
ramp.  There  was  a  hand-to-hand  tussle  with  the  foe 
at  the  top,  but  the  bayonets  of  the  marines  and  the 
deadly  rain  of  bullets  from  the  Colt  gun  beat  the  Chi- 
nese soldiers  westward  step  by  step.    On  the  gun  was 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        "jz 

pushed,  its  four  hundred  shots  a  minute  mowing  down 
the  foe.  As  soon  as  the  Chinese  had  begun  their 
retreat,  the  Christians  went  to  work  digging  out  the 
immense  bricks,  each  weighing  nearly  a  hundred 
pounds,  which  faced  the  top  of  the  wall,  and  building 
them  into  a  barricade  crossing  the  wall.  They  kept 
on  working  under  cover  of  darkness  until  a  barricade 
about  two  feet  high  stretched  across  perhaps  one-third 
of  the  width  of  the  city  wall.  It  was  to  complete  this 
barricade  that  we  had  been  called  to  the  American 
Legation. 

"The  street  which  we  had  to  cross  was  swept  by 
shot  and  shell  from  two  great  gate  towers,  a  mile  apart, 
the  one  on  the  west  being  only  six  hundred  yards  awav. 
There  we  could  see  the  banners  of  the  enemy  floating 
proudly.  There  we  knew  hundreds  of  soldiers  were 
standing  with  their  rifles.  There  were  mounted  six 
Krupp  cannon,  and  many  small  cannon  throwing  solid 
shot.  But  on  the  wall  just  above  us  were  the  American 
marines  with  their  Colt  gun.  If  forced  to  yield  that 
position,  the  cannon  of  the  Chinese  planted  there  could 
sweep  every  legation,  and  probably  not  one  soul  would 
be  left  alive  to  tell  the  story  of  the  massacre  of  Peking. 

''  'Make  a  break  across  the  street,'  called  the  mis- 
sionary who  was  leading  us.  'Go  one  at  a  time,  and 
crouch  down  when  you  get  to  the  top  of  the  wall.' 
The  bullets  sang  over  our  heads  as  we  made  the  dan- 
gerous run,  but  no  one  was  hit.  If  they  had  fired  from 
the  east  as  well  as  from  the  west,  they  could  have 
picked  us  off  as  we  climbed  the  ramp;  but  for  some 
reason  the  guns  from  that  side  were  silent.  A  grew- 
some  sight  greeted  us  as  we  reached  the  top  of  the 
wall.  It  was  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  Chinese  soldiers 
mowed  down  the  day  before  by  the  Colt  gun.  There 
we  saw  the  beginning  of  the  barricade  built  by  our 


74        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

seventy  comrades  in  the  night.  Crouching  behind  this 
barricade  or  in  the  trench  beside  it,  we  commenced  to 
dig  out  the  bricks  of  the  wall  firmly  imbedded  in  mortar 
and  extend  this  barricade.  But  we  found  it  necessary 
to  remove  the  bodies,  already  putrefying  in  the  mid- 
day heat.  I  shall  never  forget  how,  crawling  on  our 
hands  and  knees,  we  slowly  worked  them  to  one  side. 
It  was  tough  work  digging  those  great  square  bricks 
out  of  the  mortar  when  we  hardly  dared  to  lift  our 
heads.  But  we  were  all  working  away.  I  was  well 
outside  the  half-finished  barricade,  when  the  bullets 
began  to  sing  around  our  heads  like  a  swarm  of  locusts. 
'Down !'  called  the  ofiicer  in  command.  'On  your  faces, 
every  one  of  you !'  When  this  leaden  shower  let  up 
a  little,  we  went  to  work  again.  We  worked  in  pairs, 
one  carrying  bricks  to  the  barricade,  the  other  build- 
ing them  in.  In  this  way  we  had  stretched  our  low 
barricade  across  the  entire  width  of  the  wall.  It  lacked 
just  one  brick  slab  which  my  comrade  handed  me. 
It  did  not  fit  in  easily,  and  I  was  working  it  back  and 
forth  when  it  crumbled  in  my  hands,  and  I  fell  back- 
ward. A  small,  solid  cannon  ball  had  hit  that  brick 
square  in  the  middle.  'See  here,'  I  called  to  my  mate, 
'suppose  we  change  work  for  a  while.'  I  was  n't  hurt, 
but  I  '11  own  that  I  felt  a  little  rattled  the  rest  of  the 
afternoon  while  we  worked  to  raise  the  barricade 
higher,  still  keeping  under  its  shelter. 

"While  still  at  this  task,  the  enemy  made  a  sudden, 
furious  attack  from  the  west,  hoping  perhaps  to  cap- 
ture our  gun.  'Run  down  the  wall,'  was  the  command 
to  the  barricade  builders,  'but  do  n't  cross  the  street.' 
We  did  n't  feel  inclined  to  cross  that  street  while  the 
bullets  were  raining  down  it  like  sleet.  Neither  did 
we  like  the  looks  of  the  gate  tower  on  the  east,  which 
commanded  the  corner  where  we  were  screened  from 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        75 

the  shot  and  shell  coming  from  the  west.  But  fortu- 
nately for  us,  no  shot  or  shell  came  from  the  east  that 
afternoon.  The  shouts  of  the  Chinese  soldiers,  'Kill! 
kill !'  rang  in  our  ears.  The  Colt  gun  kept  singing 
its  death  song  just  over  our  heads.  We  had  eaten  noth- 
ing since  our  bowl  of  thin  porridge  had  been  given  us 
early  in  the  morning,  so  we  were  happy  when  one  of 
our  friends  rushed  across  the  street  from  the  American 
Legation  during  a  lull  in  the  storm  and  set  a  big  kettle 
of  rice  before  us.  Not  until  darkness  screened  us 
could  we  cross  the  street  and  seek  the  shelter  of  the 
legations. 

*'The  work  which  fell  to  my  lot  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  siege  was  that  of  a  miller.  Near  the  city 
wall,  at  a  distance  of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  from  the  British  Legation,  was  a  store  of  several 
thousand  bushels  of  wheat,  which  a  wonderful  provi- 
dence had  placed  there  just  in  time  to  keep  four  thou- 
sand besieged  foreigners  and  Christian  Chinese  from 
starvation.  But  this  wheat  must  be  ground.  There 
were  eleven  Chinese  mills  in  the  establishment,  the 
'upper  and  nether  millstones,'  with  mules  for  turning 
them,  and  several  of  us  young  men  set  to  work  to 
learn  the  miller's  trade.  The  machinery  was  very  rude, 
and  we  were  green  hands  at  working  it,  but  by  dividing 
into  relays,  and  working  night  and  day  under  the 
supervision  of  the  missionaries,  we  turned  out  enough 
coarse  flour  and  cracked  wheat  to  feed  that  multitude. 
Though  within  the  guarded  area,  we  were  in  an  ex- 
posed position,  and  to  avoid  crossing  a  bridge  swept 
by  the  enemy's  rifles  and  cannon,  we  ate  and  slept  in 
the  mill. 

"I  was  on  the  day  relay.  One  night,  soon  after  I 
had  gone  to  sleep,  I  was  aroused  by  the  alarm  of  fire, 
and  awoke  to  hear  flames  crackling  not  far  away.    One 


yd        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

of  the  foreign  stores  close  by  on  the  east  had  been 
fired  by  Boxers.  The  wind  blew  the  flames  and  suffo- 
cating smoke  directly  toward  our  mill.  There  seemed 
no  escape.  If  we  ran  into  the  darkness  we  would 
almost  surely  be  shot  by  the  American  and  German 
soldiers,  who  could  not  distinguish  us  from  the  Boxers. 
Suddenly  the  direction  of  the  wind  changed.  A  line 
of  fire  crept  around  that  precious  store  of  grain  upon 
which  so  many  lives  depended;  but  it  was  saved,  and 
so  were  we." 

Part  III 

CHRISTIANS  AS  MESSENGERS 

The  siege  heroes  did  not  all  stand  at  sentry  posts; 
they  did  not  all  build  barricades  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy.  There  were  those  who  took  their  lives  in  their 
hands  and  went  out  alone  into  dangers  which  might 
well  appall  the  bravest  heart.  They  went  to  tell  of 
the  peril  of  those  besieged  in  Peking;  they  returned, 
some  of  them,  to  bring  tidings  of  rescue.  Would  that 
you  might  know  them  all,  the  old  man  of  sixty,  the  boy 
of  fourteen,  the  heavy-faced  ragpicker,  the  bright- 
eyed  college  student,  the  Chinese  soldier,  the  Catholic 
of  checkered  career,  and  others  whose  names  will  never 
be  handed  down  in  history,  but  whose  loyal  love  and 
dauntless  courage  must  be  recorded  in  heaven. 

rUNG^  THE  RAGPICKER 

His  statue  will  never  adorn  a  public  square  in 
Peking.  Paul  Revere  on  his  foaming  stee<d  appeals 
to  our  aesthetic  sense  as  well  as  our  love  of  the  heroic, 
but  this  coarse-faced  ragpicker,  whom  we  hajve  often 
seen  picking  nondescript  things  out  of  the  gutter  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        ^^ 

add  to  the  pile  in  his  basket,  is  better  handed  down 
in  memory  than  in  marble.  It  was  as  a  ragpicker  that 
he  started  out  with  a  letter  to  Captain  McCalla.  Mis- 
sionaries and  native  Christians  were  gathered  at  the 
Methodist  mission,  and  the  Boxers  were  ravaging  both 
city  and  country.  It  was  known  that  Captain  McCalla 
had  started  from  Tientsin  with  a  column  to  relieve  his 
distressed  countrymen.  Would  he  reach  Peking  in 
time?  Could  his  steps  be  hastened  if  he  knew  how 
sorely  his  help  was  needed?  To  the  Chinese  Chris- 
tians came  this  question,  ''Who  is  willing  to  go  out 
into  the  midst  of  these  Boxer  hordes  with  a  letter  to 
Captain  ]\IcCalla?"  and  the  first  one  to  respond  was 
the  ragpicker.  To  him  during  the  revival  had  come 
the  question,  "Who  is  willing  to  give  his  life  for 
Christ  ?"  and  his  hand  had  been  raised  in  response. 
The  second  question  to  him  meant  the  same  as  the  first. 
With  his  ragpick  in  his  hand,  and  his  message  con- 
cealed amid  the  rags  of  the  baskets  balanced  on  his 
shoulder,  he  went  out  of  the  Methodist  mission.  Many 
were  his  perils  and  hairbreadth  escapes,  but  he  made 
his  way  to  the  side  of  the  great  captain,  who,  with 
Admiral  Seymour,  had  fought  his  way  over  nearly 
half  of  the  distance  to  Peking.  He  brought  back  to 
us  a  message  of  cheer  in  a  basket  of  rags,  then  col- 
lapsed as  a  result  of  two  days  of  starvation,  fatigue,  and 
danger.  Later  others  tried  to  communicate  with  the 
relief  column,  but  returned,  reporting  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  penetrate  the  Boxer  legions  south  of  Peking. 
Then  Tung  said :  "I  offered  my  life  before,  but  it  was 
preserved.  Now  if  I  die,  perhaps  I  can  save  many 
lives."  So  he  started  off  with  a  tiny  letter  concealed 
in  a  bandage  wrapped  around  a  sore  leg.  This  time 
he  too  was  unsuccessful,  and  not  until  the  siege  was 
relieved,  two  months  later,  did  we  know  how  Admiral 


78        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Seymour  and   Captain   McCalla,  with   sadly  depleted 
ranks,  had  fought  their  way  back  to  Tientsin. 

wu  YUAN^  the;  beggar  boy 

By  Nellie  N.  Russell. 

He  was  not  a  real  beggar,  but  it  was  in  that  dis- 
guise that  the  boy  of  fourteen  started  out  from  the 
British  Legation  on  his  perilous  mission.  His  home 
was  in  the  province  of  Shantung,  but  for  three  years 
he  had  been  in  Peking,  and  one  year  of  that  time  he 
had  spent  in  Dr.  Ament's  school  for  boys.  In  the 
spring  of  1900  he  was  in  a  barber's  shop  learning  the 
trade. 

That  June  night  when  nearly  every  mission  in 
Peking  was  burned,  and  hundreds  of  Christians  were 
slaughtered,  Wu  Yuan's  master  commanded  him  to 
burn  incense.  He  refused,  saying,  "1  am  a  Christian," 
and  was  turned  out  into  the  horrors  of  the  Peking 
streets.  For  several  days  he  wandered  up  and  down, 
but  no  one  recognized  the  shrewdfaced,  fearless  lad  as 
a  Christian.  In  the  ruins  of  a  shop  which  had  been 
burned  because  its  owner  was  a  Christian,  he  found 
a  little  money  with  which  he  bought  food,  and  at  night 
he  lay  down  in  some  doorway  to  sleep.  The  day 
before  the  missionaries  took  refuge  in  the  British  Le- 
gation he  saw  Dr.  Ament  on  the  street  near  the  Meth- 
odist mission,  and  told  him  his  story.  From  that  time 
Wu  Yuan  was  numbered  with  the  Christian  refugees. 

In  the  besieged  legations  men  watched  day  and 
night  for  the  coming  of  that  relief  army  upon  which 
the  lives  of  thousands  depended.  Surely  it  could  not 
have  turned  back.  During  the  first  days  of  the  siege, 
more  than  one  devoted  man,  not  counting  his  life  dear 
unto  himself,  had  started  out  with  a  message  to  the 
relief  army,  or  to  Tientsin.     Two  weeks  of  the  siege 


The  Bk(;(;ar   Hov  and    ihk  Student,  as  Messengers 

Who  went  from  the  British  Legation  to  Tient  Sin  . 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        79 

passed,  and  not  one  of  these  messengers  returned.  Per- 
haps their  lives  had  been  offered  up,  a  vain  sacrifice. 
On  every  side  the  legations  were  closely  invested,  and 
every  step  of  the  eighty  miles  to  Tientsin  was  beset 
with  danger. 

On  July  5th,  Dr.  Ament  and  others  went  among 
the  Christian  refugees  to  ask  if  any  would  undertake 
the  dangerous  mission  to  Tientsin.  A  large  reward 
was  offered ;  but  there  was  no  response.  As  they  were 
returning.  Dr.  Ament  saw  Wu  Yuan  and  asked  him  if 
he  would  dare  to  go.  "Yes,  I  'm  not  afraid ;  I  '11  go," 
was  the  ready  reply. 

That  night  Wu  Yuan,  dressed  as  a  beggar,  stood 
on  the  high  city  wall  with  some  American  marines. 
Concealed  under  the  porridge  in  the  beggar's  bowl  was 
a  tiny  missive  wTapped  in  oiled  silk.  A  rope  was 
fastened  about  the  boy  and  in  the  darkness  he  was 
quietly  let  down  into  the  southern  city.  Three  times 
he  pulled  the  rope  as  a  signal  that  ail  was  well,  and 
this  was  the  last  we  knew  of  Wu  Yuan  for  many  a  day. 
Already  he  had  met  one  mishap ;  his  bowl  had  been 
broken  in  the  descent.  But  feeling  carefully  in  the 
spilled  porridge  he  found  the  precious  little  note,  less 
than  an  inch  square,  and  made  his  way  to  the  great  gate 
near  by,  connecting  the  northern  and  southern  cities. 
There  he  waited,  for  the  outer  gates  would  not  be 
open  until  morning.  In  the  early  morning  he  followed 
a  porridge-vender  along  the  great  street,  and  out  to 
the  ruins  of  the  railway  station,  five  miles  away.  Every- 
where he  saw  Boxers,  but  no  one  noticed  the  little 
beggar  boy,  as  he  joined  group  after  group,  listening 
eagerly  for  any  word  about  the  foreign  army.  No  one 
mentioned  that  subject ;  all  were  talking  about  how 
they  would  kill  the  foreigners,  and  where  they  could 
find  the  Christians. 


8o        CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS 

Disappointed  at  not  getting  news  of  a  relief  army 
he  turned  toward  T'ung  Chou,  determined  to  press 
through  to  Tientsin.  He  saw  men  with  guns  and 
swords  hunting  through  the  grain  fields  for  fugitive 
Christians.  "We  must  kill  every  one,  men,  women, 
and  children,"  said  one.  "They  must  be  found !"  ex- 
claimed another  group.  Then  he  heard  the  remark, 
"We  must  not  leave  even  a  cat  or  dog  that  belongs  to 
them."  He  saw  one  man  cut  down.  "Were  you  not 
afraid?"  one  asked  as  he  told  his  story.  "No;  I  just 
prayed  all  the  time  in  my  heart,"  the  boy  replied. 

He  had  to  go  roundabout  ways  for  fear  of  being 
detected,  and  to  hide  whenever  he  saw  soldiers  coming, 
so  it  was  dark  when  he  reached  T'ung  Chou,  fourteen 
miles  from  Peking.  He  crouched  in  a  gateway  of  a 
shop  that  night,  and  in  the  early  morning  started  on 
his  second  day's  tramp.  He  had  gone  twelve  miles 
when  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  band  of  Boxers,  and 
was  taken  to  their  camp.  They  asked  him  where  he 
was  going. 

"To  Tientsin  to  find  some  relatives,"  was  the  reply. 

"Where  is  your  home?"  was  the  next  question. 

"Shantung,"  said  the  boy. 

Then  they  searched  him  but  did  not  find  the  letter 
which  he  had  carefully  concealed  in  the  cloth  garter 
bound  around  his  ankle.  For  eight  days  the  Boxers 
kept  him  a  prisoner,  and  made  him  work  for  them. 
His  heart  was  very  heavy  as  the  time  went  on  and  he 
saw  no  hope  of  making  his  escape.  On  the  eighth  day 
he  was  sick  with  chills  and  fever,  and  did  not  get  up. 
Some  of  the  Boxers  said,  "The  boy  is  homesick ;  give 
him  a  little  money  and  let  him  go."  So  they  gave  him 
five  cents  and  set  him  free. 

Sick  though  he  was,  he  knew  that  much  depended 
on  his  getting  to  Tientsin,   so  he  rose  at  once  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        8i 

started  on  his  way.  He  met  no  new  adventures. 
Tientsin  was  in  the  hands  of  the  alHcs,  and  three  days 
after  leaving  the  Boxer  camp,  he  reached  the  Russian 
outpost  at  the  north  gate  of  Tientsin.  During  those 
three  days  he  cHd  not  have  one  good  meal.  As  he 
afterwards  said,  "I  was  happy  in  my  heart  if  not  in  my 
stomach."  The  Russians  allowed  him  to  pass,  and 
seeing  some  Japanese  soldiers  inside  the  gate,  he  gave 
them  his  letter.  They  looked  at  it  curiously ;  then 
gave  it  back  to  him.  For  three  days  more  he  wandered 
about,  finding  no  one  who  would  answer  his  questions. 
At  last  he  came  upon  three  British  soldiers  cooking 
their  breakfast,  and  handed  them  the  letter,  which  they 
at  once  gave  to  their  officer.  One  of  the  soldiers  asked 
him  if  he  had  had  his  breakfast.  "No,  I  'm  not  hun- 
gry," he  said.  ''That  letter  is  very  important ;  my 
foreign  friends  are  shut  up  in  Peking,  and  are  in  great 
danger."  Assuring  him  that  everything  possible  would 
be  done,  they  gave  him  a  large  bowl  of  rice  and  meat. 
"Beef  it  was,  too,"  he  remarked  with  a  smile  of  satis- 
faction, as  he  told  his  story  later  to  the  forlorn  horse- 
eaters  in  the  legation. 

The  British  officers  gave  him  thirty  cents,  and  the 
next  day  he  was  taken  to  the  foreign  settlement  to  see 
the  British  consul.  He  told  him  that  his  friends  were 
hard  pressed,  day  and  night,  adding,  "Please  hurry 
troops  to  Peking." 

The  next  day  the  British  consul  gave  Wu  Yuan  a 
letter,  and  he  started  back.  He  put  the  letter,  which 
was  about  half  an  inch  square,  in  the  hem  of  his  loose 
upper  garment,  near  his  pocket.  The  second  day  he 
was  searched  by  Chinese  soldiers,  but  he  kept  one 
hand  on  the  hem  and  with  the  other  hand  held  open 
the  pocket,  so  the  little  letter  was  not  discovered.  At 
Yang  Ts'un  there  were  so  many  soldiers  that  he  did 
6 


82        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

not  dare  go  into  the  town ;  but  on  the  outskirts  he 
found  the  ruins  of  an  old  locomotive,  and,  creeping 
into  the  smokestack,  he  fell  asleep.  The  fourth  night 
he  spent  only  a  few  miles  from  Peking,  and  his  heart 
refused  to  believe  the  rumor  that  all  of  the  foreigners 
in  Peking  had  been  killed.  The  next  day,  from  early 
morning  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  he  went  hither 
and  thither  trying  to  steal  through  the  Boxer  lines. 
At  last  he  succeeded,  and  after  several  narrow  escapes 
as  he  made  his  way  toward  the  legations  in  the  dark- 
ness, he  reached  a  bridge  on  Legation  Street  held  by 
American  soldiers.  There  he  waited  until  light,  when 
he  was  seen  by  a  soldier.  "Do  n't  shoot ;  I  'm  a  mes- 
senger," cried  the  boy.  The  soldier  did  not  understand 
his  words,  but  he  helped  him  up  the  bank  of  the  canal 
and  took  him  into  the  American  Legation.  From 
there  he  was  taken  to  the  British  Legation,  where  he 
delivered  his  precious  missive  telling  of  the  vast  army 
gathering  in  Tientsin  which  would  soon  march  to  the 
relief  of  Peking. 

A  glad  crowd  surrounded  the  little  Chinese  hero, 
and  many  eyes  were  dimmed  with  tears ;  but  he  seemed 
all  unconscious  of  having  done  a  noble  deed.  He  had 
but  done  his  duty,  and  was  happy  in  the  thought  that 
he  had  been  able  to  do  his  foreign  friends  a  service. 
He  was  glad,  too,  that  with  the  $250  which  was  given 
him  as  a  reward  he  could  provide  his  old  uncle  in 
Peking  with  a  means  of  support. 

CHIN    ?ANG^   THE   COIvI.e:Ge;   STUDENT 

Perhaps  no  one  person  experienced  a  greater  variety 
of  the  storm  and  sunshine,  peril  and  deliverance,  of 
that  strange  last  year  of  the  nineteenth  century  than 
Chin  Fang.    To  him  the  revival  brought  its  maximum 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        83 

of  conflict,  victory,  and  joy.  He  tasted  the  dangers 
of  the  siege  in  Peking ;  then  as  a  messenger  to  Tien- 
tsin, as  a  dweller  for  weeks  in  the  rank  of  the  enemy, 
as  a  witness  of  the  battles  at  Tientsin,  as  a  guide  to 
the  British  army  on  that  memorable  march  of  the  allies 
to  relieve  the  siege  of  the  legations,  his  experiences 
almost  ran  the  gamut  of  that  marvelous,  sad  summer. 

Chin  Fang  was  a  member  of  the  junior  class  of  the 
North  China  College,  and  the  most  promising  student 
there,  with  decided  literary  ability.  In  the  government 
examinations  he  had  taken  the  preliminary  examination 
for  the  degree  of  B.  A. ;  but  the  light  thrown  on  his 
life  by  the  revival  convinced  him  that  he  was  injiiring 
soul  and  body  alike  by  the  excessive  time  given  to  the 
special  line  of  study  then  required  for  this  degree,  and 
after  an  awful  struggle  he  gave  up  the  hopes  and  am- 
bitions of  a  lifetime. 

Perhaps  that  conflict  told  too  sorely  on  his  already 
weakened  body.  Early  in  May  came  a  collapse,  and 
for  three  weeks  he  lay  almost  motionless  on  his  bed, 
the  victim  of  that  dread  disease,  consumption. 

The  following  narrative  is  a  translation,  with  a  few 
changes  and  omissions,  of  Chin  Fang's  own  written 
account  of  his  experiences  in  the  summer  of  1900: 

"My  steps  have  been  ordered  by  the  Lord,  my  life 
has  been  preserved  by  him.  As  I  look  back  now,  I 
know  that  God  has  led  me  to  the  best  place. 

"In  the  month  of  June  the  Boxers  arose,  burning 
chapels  and  killing  Christians.  The  T'ungchou  mis- 
sion was  in  the  greatest  danger.  I  had  suffered  from 
several  severe  hemorrhages  of  the  lungs,  and  was 
prostrate  on  my  bed ;  but  I  had  the  comfort  of  God, 
the  care  of  friends,  and  was  very  peaceful,  for  I  be- 
lieved that  whether  I  lived  or  died  it  was  not  in  the 
power  of  the  Boxers  to  hurt  me. 


84        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"On  June  8th  the  T'ungchou  missionaries  took 
refuge  in  Peking.  I  had  decided  to  go  to  my  home 
about  twenty  miles  away,  but  I  was  unable  to  walk, 
there  was  no  one  to  help  me,  so  I  could  only  go  with 
the  rest  to  Peking.  I  thought  that  the  jolting  of  the 
cart  would  bring  on  another  hemorrhage,  but  to  my 
surprise  I  felt  better  when  I  reached  Peking.  This 
was  truly  God's  miracle.  We  all  took  refuge  together 
in  the  Methodist  mission.  All  worked  on  fortifica- 
tions, but  because  of  my  sickness  I  could  not  work. 
On  June  20th  the  fighting  began,  and  we  went  to  the 
British  Legation  where,  in  the  afternoon,  we  heard  the 
sound  of  bullets.  All  were  looking  for  the  relief  army, 
as  men  dying  of  thirst  long  for  water.  We  were  cut 
off  from  all  communications. 

"On  the  evening  of  our  fourth  day  in  the  legations 
I  stood  with  a  Christian  barber,  Mr.  Wen,  near  the 
stone  lions,  not  far  from  the  pavilion  in  the  British 
Legation.  He  had  been  barbering  Sir  Robert  Hart, 
and  said  that  Sir  Robert  was  making  every  effort  to 
find  a  messenger  to  go  to  meet  Seymour's  relief  expe- 
dition, or  to  Tientsin. 

"I  said,  'I  will  go.' 

"  'Will  you  really  go  ?'  he  exclaimed. 

"  Xet  me  think  a  minute,'  I  said.  Then  I  con- 
tinued, *I  have  had  this  thought  for  several  days.  It 
seemed  to  me  while  we  were  at  the  Methodist  mission 
that  it  was  not  an  impossible  thing  to  get  through  to 
Tientsin.  I  do  n't  care  for  the  high  reward  that  is 
offered,  but  I  am  practically  a  dead  man  anyway.  If 
I  die,  it  is  in  a  good  cause,  to  save  the  lives  of  this  great 
company;  if  I  live,  it  will  be  the  Lord's  special  grace. 
I  will  go.' 

"I  charged  Mr.  Wen  that  he  must  tell  none  of  my 
friends  of  my  purpose,  and  he  led  me  to  Sir  Robert 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS       85 

Hart,  saying,  'Here  is  a  young  man  who  will  go  as 
your  messenger.'  Soon  a  letter  was  handed  me,  a  few 
words  written  on  a  tiny  piece  of  thin  paper.  We  found 
an  old  Catholic  woman  who  was  living  in  a  retired  spot, 
and  she  sewed  the  letter  between  the  two  layers  of  my 
cloth  shoe. 

"As  I  thought  of  this  journey,  in  spite  of  all  its 
difficulties  and  dangers,  in  spite  of  my  weak  body,  the 
conviction  grew  that  I  should  not  die  on  the  way. 
During  all  the  weeks  that  followed  this  conviction 
never  left  me,  and  often  I  seemed  to  hear  a  voice  say- 
ing, 'Go  in  peace;  thy  faith  hath  saved  thee.' 

"By  ten  o'clock  I  was  in  bed,  sleeping  quietly. 
About  one  I  awoke,  and  immediately  the  thought 
flashed  into  my  mind,  'I  must  go  with  that  letter.' 
I  went  to  Mr.  Wen  to  get  money  for  my  traveling 
expenses,  but  he  had  failed  to  get  it  from  Sir  Robert. 
He  gave  me  about  twenty  cents  of  his  own  money,  and 
I  started  off.  I  had  a  permit  to  pass  the  lines.  I  went 
out  of  the  main  gate  of  the  British  Legation,  walked 
down  Legation  Street,  crossed  the  bridge,  and  went 
east  to  the  barricade  by  the  French  Legation.  Several 
times  I  had  to  show  my  permit  to  the  foreign  soldiers. 
At  the  barricade  by  the  French  Legation  I  threw  away 
my  permit  and  climbed  over.  I  was  outside  the  lines. 
No  one  saw  me.  The  night  was  dark,  but  houses  on 
both  sides  of  the  street  were  still  burning.  The  street 
was  full  of  dead  bodies,  w'ith  snarling  dogs  gnawing 
them.     I  felt  as  if  I  were  walking  through  hell. 

"Soon  I  turned  north,  up  an  alley;  but  finding  it 
barricaded,  I  was  obliged  to  return  to  Legation  Street ; 
then  I  turned  northward  on  the  great  Ha  Ta  Street. 
I  passed  a  police  station  where  lights  were  burning, 
and  I  heard  the  soldiers  snoring.  Near  the  Single 
Arch  I  met  two  Manchu  soldiers  with  guns.    'Where 


86        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

are  you  going?'  they  asked.  'Outside  the  Chi  Hua 
Gate/  'Why  do  you  go  at  this  time  of  night?'  'Be- 
cause I  was  staying  behind  the  French  Legation;  it 
is  very  dangerous  there,  and  I  am  going  to  my  home. 
I  am  fleeing  for  my  Hfe.'     They  let  me  pass. 

"When  I  reached  the  Chi  Hua  Gate  it  was  begin- 
ning to  get  Hght ;  but  the  gate  was  not  yet  open,  and 
the  Manchu  soldiers  on  guard  were  sleeping.  I  sat 
down  on  a  stone  in  the  gateway  to  rest.  Peddlers  and 
travelers  gradually  gathered,  waiting  for  the  gate  to  be 
opened.  Just  as  the  sun  rose,  over  fifty  Boxers  in 
battle  array,  with  swords  and  spears,  came  to  the  gate. 
Among  the  Boxers  in  the  rear  was  a  man  named  Chao, 
an  excommunicated  Church-member,  who  knew  me 
well.  He  passed  within  a  few  feet  of  me.  I  did  not 
dare  try  to  avoid  him,  for  that  would  immediately 
excite  suspicion.  He  did  not  notice  me,  for  as  they 
approached  the  Manchu  soldiers  all  sprang  to  their  feet 
and  saluted,  their  officer  kneeling  to  the  Boxers.  There 
was  a  cannon  salute,  then  the  gate  was  opened,  the 
Boxers  went  out,  and  we  followed. 

"I  walked  toward  T'ungchou,  and  had  just  passed 
a  little  village  near  the  second  canal  lock  when  I  heard 
a  cry  behind  me,  'Kill  the  erh  mao-tzu !'  I  stood  still 
and  looked  back.  Several  farmers  working  in  the  fields 
ran  toward  the  village.  I  followed  them  to  avoid 
exciting  suspicion,  and  when  the  cry  'Kill !'  was  heard 
no  more,  I  went  again  on  my  way.  Soon  I  came  to 
another  village,  and  heard  the  shrieks  of  a  mob  who 
were  killing  some  Catholics.  Men  armed  with  hoes 
and  spades  were  climbing  the  house-roofs  to  see  that 
none  escaped.  The  village  people  were  doing  the 
slaughtering;  there  were  few  Boxers  there.  When 
it  grew  quieter  I  went  on,  and  soon  stopped  at  a  tea- 
shop.    A  crowd  of  Boxers  came  out  of  a  temple,  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        87 

hastened  to  the  village  which  I  had  just  passed.  As 
I  sat  drinking  tea  I  heard  people  saying,  'Those  Catho- 
lics have  met  their  retribution.' 

"As  I  walked  on  I  kept  studying  what  answer  I 
could  give  when  questions  were  asked  me.  I  heard  the 
sound  of  battle  in  Peking,  and  all  the  way  to  T'ung- 
chou  I  saw  clouds  of  smoke  rising.  It  was  impossible 
to  keep  the  tears  from  rolling  down  my  face.  My 
money  was  not  sufficient  for  my  expenses  to  Tientsin, 
but  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord  I  made  this  resolve, 
*If  I  can't  carry  this  message  through,  I  '11  neither 
return  to  my  home  nor  to  Peking.' 

"I  reached  a  village  near  the  college  place,  and  saw 
the  smoke-blackened  ruins,  with  not  a  tree  left.  A 
swarm  of  children,  like  ants,  were  carrying  off  the 
bricks.  Though  it  was  very  dangerous,  I  walked  on 
a  little  path  just  southeast  of  the  college,  and  happened 
to  meet  no  one  who  knew  me.  I  longed  to  stop  and  cry, 
but  it  would  lead  to  my  discovery.  Then  I  went  to  the 
river  bank  in  the  east  suburb  of  T'ungchou,  found 
a  boatman  who  said  he  would  take  me  to  Tientsin, 
and  pawned  my  long  garment  to  pay  my  boat-fare  to 
Yang  Ts'un.  I  thought  that  if  the  relief  army  had 
already  left  Yang  Ts'un  for  Peking,  I  could  follow 
them  up ;  if  not,  I  could  go  on  to  Tientsin. 

**I  slept  that  night  on  a  boat  by  the  bank,  and  close 
by,  on  another  boat,  there  was  a  Boxer  altar.  A  crowd 
of  Boxers,  with  wrists  and  ankles  bound  with  red,  and 
with  red  girdles,  went  onto  the  boat  to  worship  their 
divinity,  while  others  were  practicing  on  the  bank. 
Those  practicing  would  first  make  obeisance  toward  the 
southeast ;  then,  with  cries  like  a  hedgehog,  they  would 
brandish  their  weapons,  or  act  dizzy  and  fall  over  back- 
ward. Others  would  lift  them  up  and  shake  them, 
supporting  them  for  a  while ;  then  they  would  strike 


88        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

out  wildly  in  the  air  with  their  swords,  leaping  like 
madmen.  When  they  were  exhausted  they  would  lie 
on  the  ground  until  some  one  came  and  mumbled  over 
them ;  then  they  would  get  up  and  act  as  usual.  I 
stood  quietly  watching  them,  not  acting  the  least  afraid, 
so  they  did  not  suspect  me.  They  asked  questions  of 
all  on  the  boats  whom  they  suspected,  but  asked  me 
nothing. 

*'In  the  morning  I  and  the  other  passengers  who 
had  paid  their  fare  urged  the  boatman  to  start ;  but, 
instead,  he  ran  away,  saying  that  it  was  too  dangerous 
in  Tientsin.  He  had  never  intended  to  go ;  it  was  just 
a  scheme  for  getting  money.  There  was  nothing  to 
do  but  to  start  on  again  afoot,  going  that  day  over 
eighteen  miles  to  An  P'ing.  I  met  throngs  of  Boxers 
on  the  great  road,  all  saying  they  had  been  summoned 
to  Peking.  As  I  always  looked  fearless  and  uncon- 
cerned, they  paid  no  attention  to  me. 

*'On  the  fourth  day  of  my  journey  (June  27th)  I 
crossed  the  bridge  at  the  West  Arsenal,  where  the 
ground  was  strewn  with  corpses,  many  of  them  Gen- 
eral Nieh's  soldiers.  I  knew  now  that  the  relief  arm.y 
had  been  driven  back  to  the  Foreign  Settlement  at 
Tientsin.  I  had  no  money,  no  friends,  and  was  not 
very  familiar  with  the  approaches  to  the  Foreign  Set- 
tlement. Moreover,  the  east  bank  of  the  river  swarmed 
with  Boxers ;  there  were  barricades  everywhere,  and  all 
of  the  approaches  were  carefully  guarded  by  soldiers. 
Lamps  were  burning  in  every  house,  and  no  one  dared 
venture  into  a  street  or  alley  after  dark. 

"I  staid  that  night  in  a  shop  close  to  the  wall  of 
the  native  city,  over  two  miles  from  the  Foreign  Set- 
tlement. The  next  morning  I  rose  determined  to  make 
my  way  in.  All  day  I  wandered  here  and  there,  trying 
to  find  some  unguarded  spot,  but  in  vain.    Boxers  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        89 

soldiers  were  everywhere.  The  next  day,  being  in 
desperate  straits  for  money,  I  went  to  one  of  the  camps 
where  I  heard  that  they  were  employing  men,  and 
asked  to  see  the  officer  in  charge.  Seeing  that  I  did  not 
look  strong,  he  refused  to  employ  me.  I  used  various 
persuasions,  and  finally  he  laughingly  handed  me  pen 
and  paper,  and  asked  for  a  specimen  of  my  writing. 
He  then  set  me  to  work  keeping  a  register  of  the  camp. 
Exhausted  by  my  journey,  I  suffered  several  days  from 
an  attack  of  dysentery,  but  managed  to  keep  at  my 
work. 

''This  camp  was  at  the  mud  rampart,  about  two 
miles  from  the  Foreign  Settlement,  and  cannon  near 
us  were  constantly  bombarding  the  Settlement.  I  was 
greatly  distressed  because  I  could  get  no  opportunity 
to  steal  into  the  Settlement  with  my  message ;  but 
sad  though  I  was,  I  never  dared  to  show  it.  I  saw 
that,  even  if  I  succeeded  in  getting  into  the  Settlement, 
they  were  not  in  a  condition  to  send  soldiers  to  the 
relief  of  Peking.  The  house  I  lived  in  was  close  by  the 
river,  and  often  I  stood  on  the  bank,  watching  corpses 
floating  down,  some  of  the  foreign  soldiers  among 
them.  Rumors  would  reach  us  that  the  Settlement  had 
been  taken,  and  I  could  see  flames  bursting  up,  and 
wondered  what  houses  were  burning.  Many  men 
flocked  to  our  camp,  elated  with  victory. 

"On  July  1 2th  and  13th  the  fighting  was  very  fierce, 
and  on  the  14th  the  foreign  soldiers  captured  Tientsin, 
and  our  camp  began  to  break  up.  I  resolved  to  take 
in  my  letter  at  once,  though  I  expected  no  reward, 
having  delayed  so  long.  I  went  out  very  early  on  the 
morning  of  the  14th  before  the  others  left,  crossed  the 
river,  and  went  toward  the  north  gate  of  Tientsin. 
All  the  others  on  the  road  were  going  northward ;  I 
alone  went  toward  the  city.     I  found  the  north  gate 


90        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

open,  and  an  English  sentry  on  guard,  who  pointed 
his  rifle  at  me.  I  got  my  letter  out  of  my  shoe  as 
quickly  as  possible,  calling  out,  'English  letter,'  as  Sir 
Robert  Hart  had  taught  me,  and  the  sentry  allowed 
me  to  enter.  My  letter  was  given  to  General  Barrows, 
who  was  near  at  hand.  He  took  the  letter,  glanced 
at  it,  and  then,  as  he  was  able  to  talk  Chinese,  he 
asked  me  several  questions  about  the  Chinese  soldiers, 
whether  they  were  scattering,  and  in  what  direction 
they  were  going.  He  then  took  me  to  the  British 
Consulate  in  the  Settlement,  Here  Mr.  Drew,  of  the 
Customs,  told  me  that  he  was  ready  to  give  me  five 
hundred  taels  as  a  reward  for  bringing  the  letter.  The 
British  Consul  asked  me  to  take  a  letter  to  Peking, 
and  I  assented,  again  concealing  the  tiny  missive  in 
my  shoe. 

"I  started  on  the  15th,  spending  the  night  east  of 
the  river.  The  next  morning  I  was  obliged  to  pass 
through  the  Russian  lines.  They  commanded  me  to 
halt  and  searched  me,  refusing  to  look  at  my  pass, 
then  appropriated  four  dollars,  leaving  me  only  a  little 
change  from  the  five  dollars  which  the  consul  had 
given  me  for  my  traveling  expenses.  When  I  con- 
tinued my  efforts  to  make  the  soldiers  examine  my 
pass,  they  picked  up  bricks  to  throw  at  me,  so  again  I 
had  to  start  on  a  long  journey  almost  penniless.  I 
went  as  far  as  Pei  Ts'ang  on  the  great  road ;  but  finding 
the  way  there  blocked  by  Chinese  soldiers,  I  went 
around  the  place.  There  were  crowds  of  refugees 
from  Tientsin,  but  not  a  Boxer  was  visible.  That  day 
I  walked  about  thirty-seven  miles,  as  I  could  not  go 
by  the  shortest  route,  and  at  night  was  so  exhausted 
that  I  threw  myself  down  to  sleep  without  eating.  The 
next  day  I  was  held  up  by  robbers.  I  had  only  a  few 
cents,  and  I  begged  them  to  let  me  keep  them  to  buy 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        91 

food,  so  they  let  me  go.  On  the  i8th,  the  third  day  of 
my  journey,  I  reached  an  inn  near  the  Sha  Wo  Gate 
of  Peking  (eastern  wall  of  the  southern  city).  All 
along  the  way  I  had  heard  the  good  news  that  the 
legations  and  cathedral  were  still  holding  out ;  so,  eager 
to  deliver  my  letter  and  see  my  friends,  I  started  from 
the  inn  into  the  city,  trying  to  make  my  way  toward  the 
Water  Gate  (this  was  a  sluiceway  in  that  section  of  the 
wall  which  was  held  by  Americans).  It  was  raining, 
and  I  could  not  find  my  way,  so  I  returned  to  the  inn. 
I  had  heard  many  rumors  that  day  about  the  legations. 
It  was  said  that  no  one  was  ever  seen  inside,  but  who- 
ever went  past  was  struck  dead  by  a  noiseless  gun,  his 
body  showing  no  mark  of  injury. 

**I  was  so  weary  from  my  hurried  journey  and  lack 
of  food  that  I  did  not  start  out  the  next  morning  until 
ten  o'clock.  Going  to  the  Ha  Ta  Gate  (between  the 
northern  and  southern  cities)  I  found  it  closed,  and 
at  the  next  gate  (Ch'ien  Men)  only  soldiers  and  Boxers 
were  allowed  to  pass ;  so  I  went  on,  and  entered  the 
city  by  the  Shun  Chih  Gate,  which  was  guarded  by 
red-turbaned  Boxers,  who  compelled  all  travelers  to 
leave  their  carts,  and  searched  all  others  whom  they 
suspected.  As  usual  I  walked  boldly  on  without  hin- 
drance. I  had  to  go  around  the  Forbidden  City  to  get 
to  the  legations,  also  giving  the  cathedral  a  wide  berth, 
as  it  was  still  being  stormed  with  shot  and  shell.  At 
the  northwest  corner  of  the  Forbidden  City  I  saw  men 
erecting  a  high  gun  platform  for  attacking  the  cathe- 
dral. My  wide  detour  took  me  to  the  Ha  Ta  Street, 
for  my  plan  was  to  try  to  get  into  the  legations  by  the 
same  path  I  had  taken  when  I  left  that  Sunday  morn- 
ing, nearly  three  weeks  earlier.  Other  parts  of  the  city 
were  full  of  Boxers,  but  as  I  approached  the  legations, 
I  saw  only  Jung  Lu's  soldiers.    I  was  weak  from  lack 


92        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

of  food  and  dysentery,  so  I  sat  down  in  a  shop  to  rest, 
and  listened  to  the  rumors,  and  asked  questions. 

**I  made  my  way  to  the  entrance  to  Legation  Street 
without  trouble;  but  there  I  encountered  barricades 
and  soldier  guards.  Seeing  melon-peddlers  there,  I 
bought  half  a  melon,  and  started  boldly  inside  the 
lines,  trying  to  make  it  appear  as  if  I  had  been  sent 
by  some  one  inside  the  lines  to  buy  the  melon.  No 
one  questioned  me,  and  I  made  my  way  through  the 
ruined  houses  until  I  was  opposite  the  French  Lega- 
tion. There  were  barricades  everywhere,  and  the  house 
walls  left  standing  were  all  loopholed  for  attacking  the 
legations.  Jung  Lu's  soldiers  were  watching  every 
foot  of  space.  There  seemed  to  be  no  point  from  which 
I  could  enter.  I  retraced  my  steps,  still  carrying  the 
melon,  and  realizing  that  my  position  was  far  more 
dangerous  than  when  I  entered.  Still  no  one  stopped 
me.  Back  once  more  on  Ha  Ta  Street  I  made  my  way 
west  through  ruined  houses  until  I  reached  an  alley 
running  north  from  the  east  side  of  the  French  Lega- 
tion. Here  I  was  turned  back  again  by  Chinese  sol- 
diers. I  was  in  despair.  It  was  nearly  six  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon ;  I  had  no  money,  no  place  to  lodge. 
Staying  a  day  in  Peking  meant  starving  a  day.  I  was 
heartbroken  at  the  thought  of  failing  to  get  my  mes- 
sage into  the  legations,  but  the  only  course  left  me 
seemed  to  be  to  pawn  my  outside  garment,  and  try  to 
get  back  to  Tientsin.'''  I  got  about  fifteen  cents  for  my 
garment,  and  stopped  at  an  inn  near  the  Chi  Hua  Gate. 

**I  had  no  adventures  on  the  return  trip,  but  I  kept 


*It  may  be  interesting  here  to  note  that  the  first  message  which 
the  beleaguered  legations  received  from  the  outside  world  came  on  the 
afternoon  of  July  i8th,  and  it  was  the  night  of  that  same  day  when  Chin 
Fang  reached  the  gate  of  Peking.  This  messenger,  sent  by  the  Japanese, 
left  Tientsin  July  15th.  Had  Chin  Fang  succeeded  in  getting  in,  nothing 
would  have  been  accomplished  by  it,  while  by  returning  to  Tientsin  he 
was  able  to  give  valuable  aid,  as  the  succeeding  pages  will  show. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        93 

my  eyes  open  all  the  way.  I  staid  two  days  at  Pei 
Ts'ang,  and  took  note  of  the  trenches,  barricades,  and 
fortifications.  I  also  saw  on  my  journey  that  the 
Chinese  had  cut  the  bank  of  the  Peiho,  flooding  a  large 
section  of  country  to  make  the  advance  of  the  allies 
more  difficult.  I  reached  the  British  Consulate  July 
24th,  and  gave  my  report.  There  I  saw  a  general, 
whom  I  will  call  General  A.,  whom  I  had  met  when  I 
was  at  the  Consulate  before.  He  questioned  me  re- 
peatedly as  to  the  circumstances  in  Peking,  and  the 
state  of  the  country  between  Tientsin  and  Peking,  and 
several  times  he  took  me  with  him  to  headquarters, 
where  they  consulted  and  made  maps.* 

"General  A.  asked  me  to  acompany  him  to  Peking 
when  the  army  started,  and  as  I  was  eager  to  get  back, 
I  assented.  Meanwhile  he  wanted  me  to  act  as  scout, 
especially  in  the  vicinity  of  Pei  Ts'ang.  I  had  pre- 
viously been  furnished  with  a  pass  in  my  own  name, 
which  allowed  me  to  move  freely  about  the  Settlement ; 
but  the  first  time  I  wanted  to  leave  the  lines  on  my 
scouting  duties,  as  he  was  busy,  he  handed  me  a  pass 
which  had  been  made  out  for  another  man.  I  had  to 
pass  the  Russian  lines,  at  some  distance  from  the  Set- 
tlement. Two  Russian  soldiers  to  whom  I  gave  my 
pass  compelled  me  to  go  with  them  to  a  place  where 
a  number  of  officers  were  gathered  under  the  shade  of 
trees.  They  took  my  pass,  and  talked  a  long  time,  then 
searched  me  carefully,  even  examining  my  queue.  I 
kept  laughing  and  trying  to  convince  them  that  I  was 


•Some  of  the  facts  reported  by  Ching  Fang  were  cabled  all  over 
the  world.  A  London  telegram  dated  August  ist  begins:  "The  follow- 
ing information  was  brought  to  Tientsin,  Wednesday,  July  25th,  by  a 
Chinese  missionary  student,  who  was  sent  to  the  British  Legation  at  Pe- 
king. He  was  unable  to  deliver  the  message  intrusted  to  him,  "  etc. 
His  report  that  the  legations  were  still  holding  out,  and  that  there  was 
a  semi-truce,  carried  comfort  and  reassurance  all  over  China,  as  it  was 
printed  in  Shanghai  papers. 


94        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

not  a  spy ;  but  we  could  not  talk  to  each  other.  They 
ordered  soldiers  to  take  me  to  a  camp  where  there  were 
many  Russian  soldiers.  These  soldiers  kept  going 
through  the  pantomime  of  cutting  off  my  head  or 
shooting  me.  I  drew  a  map  of  Russia,  and  managed 
by  signs  to  let  them  know  that  I  was  a  Christian.  After 
that  they  treated  me  a  little  better.  Soon  I  was  sent 
under  guard  of  the  two  soldiers  who  had  arrested  me 
across  the  river  to  a  large  house  where  a  Russian 
general  lived.  An  officer  with  a  German  interpreter 
who  could  talk  Chinese  then  questioned  me.  My  two 
guards  said  that  I  had  run  when  I  saw  them,  and  that 
was  their  reason  for  arresting  me ;  this  was  a  lie.  I 
denied  running,  and  told  the  truth  about  the  passes, 
asking  them  to  take  the  two  passes  to  General  A.,  who 
would  confirm  my  story. 

"The  next  day  a  Russian  interpreter  told  me  that 
my  story  was  doubted,  that  they  believed  I  was  a  spy, 
and  that  I  must  remain  in  confinement  until  inquiries 
were  made.  Three  or  four  soldiers  guarded  me  night 
and  day ;  but  I  was  given  the  same  rations  as  the  sol- 
diers and  slept  peacefully.  During  those  days  I  recov- 
ered from  the  exhaustion  of  my  journey,  and  grew 
much  stronger.  The  interpreter  sometimes  would 
seem  very  friendly,  asking  me  where  I  had  studied 
and  similar  questions ;  then  again  he  would  try  to 
frighten  me,  saying,  'You  must  die  soon ;  that's  a  bogus 
pass.'  I  would  reply :  'I  will  not  talk  much.  My  life 
is  in  your  hands.  But  if  I  am  a  spy,  I  want  to  die 
at  the  British  Consulate,  not  here.' 

"When  three  days  had  passed  I  began  to  suspect 
that  they  did  not  want  me  to  help  the  English,  and  so 
had  not  taken  my  passes  to  be  verified.  So  I  wrote 
to  General  A.  myself,  and  the  Russians  sent  the  letter 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        95 

for  me.  On  the  fifth  clay  the  interpreter  said,  'The 
general  orders  that  you  be  taken  to  the  Settlement. 
You  're  all  right.'  So  I  went,  guarded  by  two  Rus- 
sians, and,  after  waiting  a  long  time  at  the  Russian 
and  British  Legations,  I  was  set  free.  General  A. 
still  wished  to  employ  me,  and  at  once  provided  me  with 
a  proper  pass.  1  accompanied  him  on  «a  scouting  expe- 
dition, from  which  we  returned  to  Tientsin  August  3d. 

"August  6th  we  started  on  the  march  to  Peking, 
I  mounted  on  a  horse  and  acting  as  guide  part  of  the 
way.  General  A.  charged  me  that  I  must  on  no  account 
fail  to  keep  private  all  my  information.  On  the  way 
I  helped  him  to  examine  official  records  at  the  yamens, 
to  examine  suspicious  persons  and  wounded  soldiers, 
and  often  I  was  sent  in  advance  of  the  troops  into 
dangerous  places.  (We  omit  reports  of  battles  on  the 
way. ) 

"On  August  nth,  at  two  in  the  afternoon,  I  rode 
with  General  A.  out  from  Chang  Chia  Wan  to  scout. 
The  Japanese  were  then  fighting  in  the  vicinity  of  T'ung- 
chou,  and  we  heard  a  rumor  that  the  place  had  been 
taken.  The  next  day  I  went  with  General  A.  to  the 
south  gate  of  T'ungchou.  We  mounted  a  wall,  and 
with  the  aid  of  a  glass  I  could  point  out  to  him  the 
principal  yamens,  and  the  different  Boxer  quarters. 
We  then  went  to  the  Boxer  quarters  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  records.  The  night  of  the  12th  we  staid 
in  T'ungchou.  The  next  night  I  slept  in  a  great 
cemetery  four  miles  from  the  Sha  Wo  Gate  of  Peking. 
We  could  plainly  hear  the  furious  attacks  on  the  lega- 
tions ;  so  at  one  in  the  morning  the  cavalry  prepared 
to  march,  though  it  had  not  been  planned  to  start  until 
six  o'clock.  There  was  some  delay,  and  we  heard  the 
Japanese  bombarding  the  Chi  Hua  Gate.     In  scout- 


96        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

ing  near  the  wall  I  saw  Chinese  soldiers  running  into 
the  tall  grain.  I  also  saw  American  forces  fighting 
at  the  Tung  Pien  Gate. 

"About  noon  the  British  bombarded  the  Sha  Wo 
Gate,  advancing  at  the  same  time.  They  crossed  the 
bridge  over  the  moat,  and  surged  against  the  great 
barred  gate  which  soon  gave  way.  General  A.  had 
a  map  of  Peking.  He  and  I,  with  four  or  five  others, 
went  in  advance.  We  passed  in  sight  of  the  Ha  Ta 
Gate  tower.  Then  we  caught  some  men  and  made 
them  show  us  the  way  to  the  Water  Gate.  Soon  we 
could  see  the  American  flag  waving  over  the  wall. 
We  crossed  the  moat,  and  saw  American  soldiers  on 
the  wall  waving  their  handkerchiefs.  General  A.  and 
another  officer  asked  me  to  hold  their  horses,  and  they, 
with  others,  waded  the  shallow  water  of  the  Water 
Gate,  followed  by  Rajput  infantry.  Soon  I  heard  loud 
cheering  from  the  legations,  and  tears  of  joy  ran  down 
my  face  as  I  stood  holding  the  horses.  I  followed 
behind  the  infantry,  and  as  soon  as  I  entered  the  Water 
Gate  I  saw  many  Chinese  friends.  Soon  I  was  in  the 
legation,  where  my  missionary  friends  greeted  me  as 
one  risen  from  the  dead. 

''Now  the  Lord  has  saved  many  out  of  distress, 
and  has  brought  me  too  out  of  danger.  So  I  took  my 
pen  to  write  this  memorial  of  grace."* 

"  Blessed  be  Jehovah, 

Who  hath  not  given  us  as  a  prey  to  their  teeth. 

Our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowlers : 

The  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  escaped." 

*Chin  Fang  lived  more  than  two  years  after  these  events.  Of  the  five 
hundred  taels  (about  $350)  received  as  a  reward,  he  gave  two  hundred  to 
be  used  for  the  relief  Qf  students  in  college  who  might  be  stricken  with 
consumption.  A  medal  from  the  British  Government  testifying  to  the 
value  of  his  services  reached  the  hands  of  his  friends  soon  after  his  death, 
and  is  now  in  the  museum  of  the  North  China  College. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   LOYALTY    OF   THE   CHRISTIANS   TO 
THEIR  FOREIGN  FRIENDS 

"  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down 
his  life  for  his  friends." 

The  past  has  handed  down  to  us  no  more  beautiful 
legends  than  those  which  tell  of  man's  loyalty  to  his 
friend ;  history  records  no  more  heroic  deeds  than  those 
which  were  wrought  because  one  man  loved  another. 
We  are  richer  for  these  legends ;  these  annals  of  hero- 
ism have  inspired  us  to  more  strenuous  manhood,  more 
noble  womanhood ;  and  tales  of  brave  endurance  often 
touch  our  hearts  more  deeply  than  tales  of  dash  and 
daring.  An  American  soldier  in  the  siege  of  Peking, 
after  standing  for  hours  at  a  sentry  post  and  not  firing 
one  of  his  precious  cartridges,  said :  **I  'm  not  afraid 
to  meet  the  enemy  in  battle.  There  's  something  there 
to  nerve  a  fellow  up,  something  to  do.  But  this  staying 
week  after  week  like  a  rat  in  a  hole,  and  being  shot 
at,  is  just  awful."  The  heroes  whose  stories  are  told 
in  the  following  pages  stood,  many  of  them,  long  weeks 
in  places  where  to  stay  might  at  any  moment  mean  a 
horrible  death,  where  to  flee  was  easy  and  promised 
safety.  Love  was  the  magnet  which  drew  and  held 
them  there ;  love  for  men  and  women  of  an  alien  race, 
to  whom  their  hearts  were  bound  by  ties  of  gratitude 
and  of  faith  in  one  Father.  This  devotion,  in  many 
cases,  passed  beyond  the  realm  of  reason  into  that  of 
7  97 


98        CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

romance.  Why  should  these  Chinese  Christians  await 
massacre  in  mission  compounds  when  they  could  not 
lessen  one  pang  of  the  death-agony  for  their  beloved 
missionaries?  Because  they  knew  that  they  could  les- 
sen the  agony  of  the  death  in  life  of  those  weeks  of 
waiting ;  because  they  loved  their  friends  so  much  that 
to  die  with  them  seemed  better  than  to  live  without 
them.  So  from  not  one  of  our  hundred  and  ninety 
Protestant  missionaries  who,  in  the  summer  of  1900, 
followed  their  Master  on  the  way  of  the  Cross,  came 
his  Gethsemane  lament,  "Could  ye  not  watch  with  me 
one  hour?"  Of  none  was  it  written,  ''Then  all  the 
disciples  left  him  and  fled."  If  any  were  left  alone 
in  that  last  agony,  it  was  because  their  own  hands 
had  pushed  aside  those  who  would  fain  have  died 
with  them.  Many  of  the  Christians  who  left  com- 
panies of  missionaries  just  as  the  death-blow  fell,  had 
promised  that  when  the  end  came  they  would  not 
ofifer  their  lives  in  useless  sacrifice.  There  are  instances 
where  Christians  who  had  recanted  still  offered,  at 
great  peril,  to  try  to  lead  their  missionary  friends  to 
places  of  safety,  or  to  shelter  them  in  their  own  homes. 

To  appreciate  this  loyalty  we  must  remember  that 
the  Governor  of  Shansi  issued  a  proclamation  stating 
that  any  Chinese  who  sheltered  or  helped  foreigners 
would  be  killed  with  their  entire  families,  and  their 
homes  would  be  burned.  These  Christians,  in  defend- 
ing their  friends,  were  setting  themselves  against  their 
own  government  and  rulers. 

The  stories  of  "Christians  as  Messengers"  in  the 
preceding  chapter  illustrate  this  same  loyalty.  The  few 
that  follow  are  given  as  representative.  Many  a  man 
laid  down  his  life  for  his  friend  when  there  was  no 
eye  to  see.  We  must  wait  to  hear  their  stories,  but 
God  will  not  forget.    There  are  others,  of  whom  only 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS        99 

a  glimpse  like  the  following  is  given  us.  On  a  lonely 
mountain  in  Shansi  a  Boxer  band  dragged  a  Christian 
with  them  on  a  search  for  fugitive  missionaries ;  he 
knew  their  hiding-place ;  he  must  reveal  it.  Their 
steps  drew  near  the  little  cave  where  he  knew  that 
his  friends  were  concealed.  A  loud  cry  of  warning 
rang  over  the  mountain,  "Pastor  !  Pastor  !"  There  was 
no  time  for  more ;  the  devoted  Christian  lay  dead  at 
the  feet  of  the  Boxers,  but  the  little  company  in  the 
cave,  warned  in  time,  resisted  the  attack,  and  not  until 
several  days  later  did  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  mur- 
derers. 

PASTOR  MENG  OF  PAG  TING  FU 

First  on  the  list  of  those  who  counted  not  their 
lives  dear  unto  themselves  should  stand  the  name  of 
this  brave  hero  of  Pao  Ting  Fu.  He  was  a  graduate 
of  the  North  China  College  and  Theological  Seminary, 
and  was  the  first  native  pastor  ordained  in  the  Nortli 
China  Mission  of  the  American  Board.  Late  in  May, 
1900,  he  was  attending  the  Annual  Conference  of  that 
mission  at  T'ung  Chou,  near  Peking,  when  word  came 
that  the  Boxers  were  tearing  up  the  railway  between 
Peking  and  Pao  Ting  Fu.  Pastor  Meng  knew  that 
the  long-threatened  blow  was  falling,  and  that  Mr. 
Pitkin,  Miss  Morrill,  and  Miss  Gould,  a  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  away  in  Pao  Ting  Fu,  were  in  imminent 
danger.  So,  without  waiting  for  the  end  of  the  meet- 
ing he  said  his  farewells.  "Mr.  Pitkin  and  the  Church 
members  will  need  me,"  he  said  as  he  hastened  away. 

During  the  month  of  June  dangers  thickened  about 
the  devoted  band  of  missionaries  and  Christians  who 
lived  in  the  mission  compound  not  far  from  the  city 
wall  of  Pao  Ting  Fu.  Still  every  day  Pastor  Meng 
and  some  college  students  opened  the  street  chapel  in 


loo      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  city  and  preached  as  usual.  A  prominent  man,  not 
himself  a  Christian^  said  to  the  pastor,  ''Why  do  you 
not  hide  away  for  a  time?"  He  replied,  *'I  am  the 
shepherd  of  the  flock.  Can  I  leave  them?"  To  an- 
other who  pointed  out  how  easily  he  could  find  a  place 
of  safety,  he  said,  ''The  missionaries  have  staid  by  us ; 
I  shall  stay  and  live  or  die  with  them." 

By  the  27th  of  June  it  was  plain  that  all  who  re- 
mained in  that  mission  compound  were  doomed  soon 
to  meet  death.  For  the  Chinese  escape  was  still  pos- 
sible, but  for  the  three  Americans  there  was  no  place 
of  concealment.  Pastor  Meng  called  his  oldest  boy 
to  his  side  and  said :  "Ti-to,  I  have  asked  my  friend, 
Mr.  T'ien  to  take  you  with  him  and  try  to  find  some 
place  of  refuge  from  the  Boxers.  I  can  not  forsake 
my  missionary  friends  and  the  Christians  who  have 
no  one  else  to  depend  upon ;  but  I  want  one  member 
of  my  family  left  to  take  up  the  work  after  I  am  gone." 

"Father,"  said  the  boy,  "I  want  to  stay  here  with 
you ;  I  am  not  afraid  to  die." 

"No,"  the  father  replied,  "if  we  are  all  killed,  who 
will  be  left  to  preach  Jesus  to  these  poor  people?" 

So  in  the  darkness  of  that  night  the  boy  went  away. 
About  three  o'clock  the  next  afternoon  Pastor  Meng 
was  in  the  chapel  in  one  of  the  great  streets  of  the 
city,  when  a  company  of  Boxers  suddenly  burst  into 
the  room  and  seized  him.  A  companion  escaped  over 
the  wall,  and  took  the  sad  tidings  to  his  friends.  The 
Boxers  first  stabbed  the  pastor  in  the  head  with 
spears,  twisted  one  arm  out  of  joint,  and  bound  it, 
then  dragged  him  to  the  "Temple  of  the  Seven  Saints" 
near  the  south  wall  of  the  city,  the  same  place  to  which 
Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould  were  taken  three  days 
later.  There  they  tortured  him,  scorching  his  shoul- 
ders with  burning  candles,  hoping  to  force  him  to  tell 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      loi 

where  his  oldest  son  was  concealed,  or  to  make  state- 
ments which  they  could  turn  into  accusations  against 
the  missionaries  and  native  Christians.  We  know  not 
what  words  this  devoted  man  spoke  during  the  night 
hours  when  he  lay  with  his  life  ebbing  away.  In  the 
early  morning  scores  of  cruel  knives  stabbed  him,  a 
sword  severed  the  head  from  the  body,  and  the  face  of 
the  Master  smiled  on  this  brave  soul,  ''faithful  unto 
death." 

PASTOR  MENG's  sister,    MRS.  TU 

Mrs.  Tu  was  the  first  Bible  woman  of  Pao  Ting 
Fu,  and  in  the  dispensary,  in  the  village  and  city  homes, 
thousands  of  women  had  heard  from  her  earnest,  elo- 
quent lips  the  story  of  Jesus.  Just  a  few  weeks  before 
their  martyrdom,  she  and  Mrs.  Kao  had  been  appointed 
as  the  first  deaconesses  in  the  Pao  Ting  Fu  Church, 
and  though  the  care  of  three  children  burdened  the 
heart  and  the  hand  of  the  frail  little  woman,  she  still 
found  time  and  strength  for  countless  ministries. 

During  the  last  days  of  danger,  Mrs.  Tu  and  her 
children  left  their  home  and  occupied  rooms  in  the 
same  compound  with  Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould. 
There  she  cared  for  her  brother's  motherless  children, 
and  for  a  girl  who  had  been  in  the  boarding-school, 
and  who  could  not  be  sent  to  her  home  in  far-away 
Shansi.  Chang  Ch'ing  Hsiang,  a  college  student, 
whose  story  is  told  in  the  chapter  on  Pao  Ting  Fu, 
relates  how  he  went  to  Mrs.  Tu's  room  that  Thursday 
afternoon  to  tell  her  that  her  brother  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Boxers : 

"The  brave  little  woman  did  not  break  down, 
though  she  said  at  once  that  there  was  no  hope  for  him. 

"  'And  what  of  yourself?    Are  you  not  afraid?' 

"  'No,'  she  replied ;  'death  is  certain,  but  I  do  not 


102      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

fear  it,  and  I  shall  stay  with  the  missionaries  whom 
I  love.' 

"I  looked  at  the  six  helpless  children,  and  said, 
'But  can't  we  do  something  to  save  these  poor  little 
ones?  Perhaps  we  could  hire  some  heathen  family 
to  take  them ;  then,  if  we  escape,  we  can  get  them  back.' 

''  'It  would  not  be  easy  for  the  children  to  escape 
slaughter  anywhere;  they  had  better  stay  with  me.' 
Then  she  added :  'At  most  it  will  only  be  two  or 
three  days  before  the  end.  We  women  and  children 
are  not  strong  enough  to  escape  by  running  away. 
There  is  no  hope  for  the  missionaries  either.  But 
why  should  you  young  men  who  are  educated  for  the 
service  of  the  Lord  throw  away  your  lives?  You  can 
protect  no  one  by  staying  here.  If  all  die,  who  will 
lay  the  foundations  of  the  Church  again  after  the 
storm  has  passed  ?'  " 

Saturday  night  they  watched  flames  shooting  up 
from  the  Presbyterian  mission  in  the  north  suburb. 
Their  turn  would  come  soon,  and  they  waited  with 
calm  hearts.  One  after  one  the  Chinese  left,  the  mis- 
sionaries fairly  pushing  out  the  reluctant  ones;  but 
Mrs.  Tu,  the  six  children,  and  the  Shansi  schoolgirl 
did  not  flee.  The  lips  that  might  tell  us  the  story  of 
the  last  hours  of  that  night  are  sealed  in  death ;  but  we 
know  that  when  that  Sabbath  morning  dawned  and 
the  end  came,  the  Good  Shepherd  walked  with  them 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow.  Before  noon  eight 
had  found  a  common  grave  in  a  low  hollow  by  the 
roadside,  just  in  front  of  Mr.  Pitkin's  house.  They 
were  Mr.  Pitkin,  who  had  been  shot  down  in  trying 
to  defend  the  women,  Mrs.  Tu  and  five  children,  and 
the  schoolgirl.  The  body  of  Pastor  Meng's  second 
son,  mischievous,  bright-eyed  Peter,  was  in  the  ashes 
of  the  mission  buildings  where  death  had  overtaken 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      103 

the  little  company.  The  Boxers  laughed  as  they  saw 
him  three  times  run  out  of  the  flames,  and  each  time 
they  tossed  him  back. 

Not  far  away,  almost  in  the  shadow  of  the  city  wall, 
lay  the  bodies  of  the  two  other  missionaries  whom 
Mrs.  Tu  loved,  with  those  of  the  China  Inland  Mission. 
At  sunset,  when  the  executioner's  knife  did  its  cruel 
work,  was  Mrs.  Tu  among  the  throng  which  welcomed 
Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould  to  the  other  side? 

"They  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives,  and 
in  their  death  they  were  not  divided." 

KUO  LAO   MAN,  OF   PAG  TING   FU 

To  those  who  knew  this  faithful  old  man  it  will 
not  seem  strange  that  he  was  the  last  one  to  leave  the 
mission  compound;  that  it  was  his  sacred  privilege 
to  hear  the  last  messages  sent  by  the  martyred  dead  to 
loved  ones  across  the  sea.  Three  missions  in  Pao 
Ting  Fu  looked  to  him  as  their  most  trusty  messenger. 
Any  one  who  had  important  letters  to  send  to  Peking 
or  Tientsin  wanted  to  place  them  in  his  faithful  hand ; 
any  who  needed  the  honest  service  of  one  who  was  not 
an  eye-servant  tried  to  engage  Mr.  Kuo.  Mr.  Pitkin 
and  little  Horace  were  very  dear  to  his  heart,  and 
often  he  had  served  them.  In  the  compound  of  the 
American  Board  it  was  a  familiar  sight  to  see  Mr.  Kuo 
wheeling  the  beautiful  child  up  and  down  the  long 
walk,  perfectly  indififerent  to  taunts  and  the  epithet, 
"Old  nurse-woman,"  which  was  sometimes  thrown  at 
him  by  those  who  saw  him  performing  this  unusual 
service.  After  Mrs.  Pitkin  and  little  Horace  had  gone 
to  America  in  the  spring  of  1900,  ^Mr.  Kuo  continued 
to  serve  Mr.  Pitkin. 

The  night  of  June  30th  came.    To  the  north  a  red 
glow  hung  over  the  place  where  the  Presbyterian  mis- 


I04      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

sion  had  stood,  and  weeping  Christians  told  how  a 
chariot  of  fire  had  borne  men,  women,  and  children  to 
their  Father's  home.  The  missionaries  had  persuaded 
all  to  leave  except  Mr.  Kuo,  Mrs.  Tu,  and  her  com- 
pany of  children.  They  were  all  waiting  quietly  and 
calmly  for  the  attack  which  could  not  long  be  delayed. 
Mr.  Kuo  says :  "I  saw  Miss  Morrill  last  in  the  chapel 
with  Mrs.  Tu.  She  said:  'Now  we  can  only  wait; 
our  lives  are  in  God's  keeping.  He  may  ask  us  to  lay 
them  down  very  soon.'  "  The  little  company  in  the 
chapel  separated,  and  he  did  not  see  Miss  Morrill  and 
Miss  Gould  again.  In  the  sadness  and  the  silence  of 
the  night  hours,  Mr.  Kuo  helped  Mr.  Pitkin  to  bury 
under  a  dovecote  a  precious  little  package  containing 
the  last  words  written  by  one  standing  at  the  gate  of 
death  to  one  whom  he  loved  better  than  life.  Mr. 
Kuo  marked  well  the  place,  he  listened  with  tears  to 
the  charge  to  try  to  escape,  and  when  the  storm  was 
over,  to  come  and  search  for  the  buried  package.  Then 
the  young  missionary  and  the  old  servant  talked  to- 
gether until  midnight.  The  last  words  of  Mr.  Kuo's 
story  are  among  the  most  beautifully  pathetic  which 
the  world  has  ever  heard :  "At  last  Mr.  Pitkin  said : 
*Do  not  risk  your  life  any  longer,  but  get  over  the 
wall  and  get  into  hiding  before  dawn.  My  buried 
letter  may  be  found  and  destroyed.  If  you  learn  that 
it  is,  send  word  to  Mrs.  Pitkin  that  God  was  with 
me,  and  his  peace  was  my  consolation.  Tell  her  that 
when  Horace  is  twenty-five  years  old  I  hope  he  will 
come  to  China  to  preach  the  gospel  in  my  place.'  Then 
we  knelt  down  and  prayed  together,  and  he  sent  me 
away." 

It  was  early  in  October  when  the  faithful  servant 
succeeded  in  reaching  Tientsin,  and  fulfilling  his  last 
solemn  commission.    The  message  was  started  across 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      105 

the  sea,  and,  when  the  alHes  reached  Pao  Ting  Fu, 
careful  search  was  made  in  the  mass  of  ruins  for  the 
precious  letter.     It  has  never  been  found. 

MR.  CHANG  AND  MR.  IIO,  OF  HSIN  CHOU,  SHANSI 

On  June  29th  a  group  of  Eng-lish  Baptist  mission- 
aries fleeing  for  their  lives  from  Hsin  Chou,  were 
welcomed  to  the  home  of  Mr.  Chang.  This  noble 
Christian  man  did  everything  possible  for  their  relief, 
and  after  resting  in  his  home  they  sought  a  safer  refuge 
in  a  mountain  cave.  There,  a  few  days  later,  Mr. 
Chang  went  to  visit  them ;  but  on  the  way  he  w^as 
captured  by  villagers  who  held  him  until  Boxers  from 
Hsin  Chou  arrived.  These  Boxers  were  searching  out 
the  hiding-place  of  the  foreigners,  and  they  demanded 
that  Mr.  Chang  should  guide  them.  Though  threat- 
ened with  death  he  resolutely  refused  to  give  a  clue 
to  their  whereabouts,  and  when  they  set  upon  him 
with  swords  and  sticks  he  endured  unto  death  without 
betraying  his  friends. 

Mr.  Ho,  an  old  man  of  sixty,  with  several  other 
Christians,  accompanied  these  missionaries  on  their 
flight,  and  remained  with  them  in  their  hiding-place 
for  about  two  weeks,  when  he  was  sent  by  them  on  a 
scouting  expedition  to  see  if  it  would  be  possible  to 
escape  eastward.  He  fell  into  the  hands  of  Boxers, 
who  delivered  him  to  the  magistrate  in  Hsin  Chou. 
The  magistrate  at  once  put  him  in  handcuffs,  and  the 
next  day  he  summoned  him  to  the  judgment  hall  and 
asked  him  where  the  missionaries  were  hiding.  The 
old  man  refused  to  tell,  and  the  angry  magistrate  com- 
manded his  underlings  to  beat  him  with  the  bamboo. 
Repeatedly  the  cruel  strokes  WQve  staid  for  the  ques- 
tion, "Where  are  the  foreigners?"  but  the  lips  of  the 
sufferer  still  refused  to  answer.     "Does  n't  it  hurt  ?" 


io6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

mocked  the  underlings  and  bystanders.  "You  '11  soon 
be  in  heaven."  When  a  thousand  heavy  strokes  had 
fallen  on  his  bleeding  body  he  was  dragged  to  prison 
half  insensible,  still  handcuffed,  and  his  feet  were 
placed  in  wooden  stocks.  The  fourth  day  his  suffer- 
ings ended;  the  taunting  prophecy  of  his  enemies  was 
fulfilled,  and  soon  those  whom  he  had  tried  in  vain 
to  save  joined  him  in  heaven. 

U   PAI^  OF   SHOU   YANG^   SHANSI 

Five  years  before  the  outbreak,  Li  Pai  had  been 
baptized  by  Mr.  Pigott,  of  Shou  Yang,  and  the  last 
two  years,  leaving  his  former  occupation  of  shepherd, 
he  had  helped  Mr.  Pigott  in  his  missionary  work. 
The  story  of  his  conversion  is  most  interesting.  The 
reading  of  a  copy  of  the  Gospel  of  Luke,  purchased 
from  Mr.  Pigott,  led  him  to  give  up  idol-worship; 
but  he  did  not  hear  a  word  of  explanation  from  a 
missionary  until  one  day  when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pigott 
spoke  in  a  village  near  his  home.  When  Li  Pai  saw 
them  he  took  from  his  bosom  the  little  book,  carefully 
wrapped,  saying  eagerly :  *'I  have  read  about  Jesus 
in  this  book.  He  was  a  wonderful  man,  and  did  great 
works.  Who  was  he  ?  Why  did  they  kill  him  ?"  Step 
by  step  this  earnest  inquirer  was  led  on,  and  soon  he 
was  rejoicing  in  Jesus  as  his  Savior. 

Through  the  troubled  month  of  June,  1900,  Li  Pai 
staid  with  Mr.  Pigott  and  his  fellow  missionaries, 
supporting  them  by  his  brave  helpfulness.  On  June 
29th,  after  they  had  heard  of  the  burning  of  a  mission 
in  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  and  had  received  a  letter  from  the 
Shou  Yang  magistrate  ordering  them  to  leave,  Li  Pai 
gathered  the  Christians  together,  and  Mr.  Pigott  told 
them  the  sad  news.  A  Christian  woman,  who  was 
in  the  hospital  for  treatment,  and  her  husband  Yen  Lai 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      107 

Pao,  at  once  invited  the  missionaries  to  their  home 
in  a  lowly  mountain  village,  a  long  day's  journey 
away.  At  four  the  next  morning  they  started,  Li  Pai 
and  a  servant  with  them.  Curious  hundreds  gathered 
to  see  them  the  very  day  after  they  reached  their 
retreat,  and  a  day  later  came  word  that  Boxers  were 
slaughtering  native  Christians  only  two  miles  away. 
Emboldened  by  this,  the  crowds  began  to  carry  off 
the  few  things  which  the  missionaries  had  taken  with 
them,  and  to  pillage  the  Christians  in  the  little  village. 
Then  Mr.  Pigott  took  Li  Pai  aside  and  urged  him  to 
leave  at  once  for  the  province  of  Chihli. 

Li  Pai  said :  '*I  do  not  wash  to  leave  you.  Wher- 
ever you  go,  I  am  quite  willing  to  go."  Mr.  Pigott 
still  urged  his  faithful  friend  to  leave,  saying  he  could 
not  help  him  by  remaining.  Li  Pai  protested.  Then 
Mr.  Pigott  said  firmly,  ''You  must  go."  But  Li  Pai 
did  not  leave  them  at  once.  They  had  decided  to 
return  to  Shou  Yang,  and  he  went  w^ith  them  to  a 
point  outside  the  village,  where  all  knelt  down  and 
prayed  together,  weeping  as  they  prayed. 

Forbidden  to  accompany  them,  Li  Pai  still  fol- 
lowed, watching  them  from  a  distance,  and  knew  that 
they  entered  the  city  gate  about  midnight.  Outside 
the  city  Li  Pai  hid  in  an  empty  shed  by  day,  and  at 
night  he  stole  out  to  inquire  about  his  beloved  friends. 
From  this  hiding-place  he  saw  the  mob  which  led 
seven  Christians  out  to  execution.  For  several  days 
he  had  nothing  to  eat  except  grass  and  a  little  unripe 
grain  which  he  gathered.  Hearing  that  the  mission- 
aries, who  had  been  imprisoned  in  the  yamen  in  Shou 
Yang,  were  about  to  be  sent  to  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  he 
stationed  himself  on  the  road,  that  he  might  get  a 
glimpse  of  them.  Again  he  traveled  in  the  night 
to  avoid  discovery;  then,  heedless  of  danger,  he  joined 


io8      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

travelers  on  the  way  to  learn  the  fate  of  those  whom 
he  loved.  On  July  8th,  the  second  day  of  their  journey, 
from  a  hiding-place  by  the  roadside  so  near  that  he 
could  hear  Mr.  Pigott  talking,  he  saw  them  for  the 
last  time  as  they  rode  handcuffed,  with  the  hot  sun 
beating  down  on  their  uncovered  heads,  in  the  midst 
of  their  rude  soldier  escort.  Still  hi  Pai's  love  drew 
him  on,  and  reaching  the  home  of  a  relative  near  the 
gate  of  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  he  hid  in  the  straw  of  his 
granary,  and  there,  on  the  night  of  July  9th,  he  heard 
that  thirty-three  Protestant  missionaries  had  been  ex- 
ecuted near  the  governor's  yamen  under  the  personal 
direction  of  the  governor  himself.  For  two  days  Li 
Pai  wandered  aimlessly  about,  stunned  with  grief. 
Not  until  the  25th  of  August  did  he  make  his  way  to 
the  city  of  Hsuan  Te  Fu  in  Northern  Chihli,  to  which 
his  martyred  pastor  had  advised  him  to  flee.  Many 
were  the  wonderful  deliverances  of  those  seven  weary 
weeks  of  journeying.* 

October  i6th,  Li  Pai  started  back  on  a  sad  pil- 
grimage through  Shansi,  visiting  many  a  mission  ruin, 
hearing  heartbreaking  tales  of  the  massacre  of  the 
Christians,  and  going  to  Shou  Yang  to  learn  details  of 
the  four  days  which  the  missionaries  had  spent  there 
before  they  were  carried  to  T.ai  Yuan  Fu  for  execution. 
Then  again  he  went  to  Chihli,  telling  his  story  in  Pao 
Ting  Fu  and  Peking,  and  waiting  in  Tientsin,  where, 
December  iSth,  he  met  Dr.  Edwards,  and  told  him 
of  the  death  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Pigott.  It  was  the 
last  pathetic  service  which  he  could  render  to  those 
whom  he  loved. 


■  The  story  of  these  weeks  is  given  in  Chapter  VI. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS      109 


YEN    LAI    PAO 


It  was  this  man  and  his  wife  who  offered  the 
Pigott  party  a  refuge  in  their  home.  They  were  able 
to  shelter  them  only  three  days;  then  the  missionaries 
returned  to  the  city  to  escape  the  Boxers,  who  were 
cutting  down  Christians  on  every  side,  and  Mr.  Yen 
and  his  relatives,  twenty  in  number,  fled  into  the  moun- 
tain ravines.  The  next  day  their  homes  were  in  ashes ; 
then  through  every  mountain  ravine  filed  the  Boxers, 
searching  for  the  fugitives.  Mr.  Yen  himself  was 
their  first  victim ;  then  one  of  his  sons  was  captured. 
"Tell  us  where  the  rest  of  your  family  are  hiding," 
the  Boxers  said  to  the  young  man.  He  refused,  and 
was  taken  to  his  village  home,  where  feet  and  hands 
were  tied  together  behind  his  back,  and  he  was  sus- 
pended by  them  from  a  pole.  Tortured  with  pain, 
he  still  refused  to  reveal  the  hiding-place;  then  burn- 
ing incense  was  placed  on  his  back,  and  weighted 
down  with  a  heavy  stone.  Though  he  was  silent, 
even  unto  death,  other  members  of  the  family  were 
hunted  down,  until  only  six  were  left.  No  other  Chris- 
tians in  Shansi  were  hunted  down  with  such  diligence, 
murdered  with  such  ferocity.  It  was  their  earthly 
reward  for  harboring  the  missionaries. 

CHANG  CHDNG  SHENG,  OF  TAI  YUAN  FU 

When  thirty-three  Protestants  and  twelve  Roman 
Catholic  missionaries  were  beheaded  by  the  governor 
at  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  they  did  not  die  alone.  Several 
Christians  stood  with  them,  and  followed  them  into 
the  homeland.  Among  them  was  Mr.  Chang,  who 
was  acting  as  servant  for  Mr.  Beynon,  of  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  Saturday  night,  when 
the  missionaries  were  compelled  to  forsake  their  own 


no      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

homes  and  intrust  themselves  to  the  protection  of  the 
governor,  four  faithful  Christians  volunteered  to  go 
with  them  as  servants,  though  they  well  knew  the 
risk  they  were  running.  Sunday  they  helped  the  mis- 
sionaries make  themselves  as  comfortable  as  possible 
in  their  new  quarters.  Monday  afternoon,  June  9th, 
the  missionaries  and  all  of  the  Chinese  who  happened 
to  be  with  them  at  the  time,  were  arrested  and  led 
out  to  execution.  It  is  said  that,  after  the  missionaries 
were  killed,  the  Chinese  Christians  were  given  an  op- 
portunity to  recant,  but  they  replied  to  the  governor, 
"Do  n't  ask  us  any  more,  but  quickly  do  what  you 
mean  to  do." 

WITH  FUGITIVE  MISSI0NARIE:S 

David  was  once  a  fugitive,  and  in  his  time  of  fear 
and  flight  he  had  his  Jonathan  who  ''loved  him  as  his 
own  soul."  When  the  angry  king  was  pursuing  David, 
''Jonathan,  Saul's  son,  went  to  David  in  the  wood 
and  strengthened  his  hand  in  God."  So  band  after 
band  of  missionaries  fleeing  from  the  interior  of  China 
to  the  coast  were  accompanied  by  Christians  who  had 
left  home  and  loved  ones  behind,  who  daily  faced 
death,  who  bore  insult  and  torture  and  hunger  that 
they  might  lessen  the  sufferings  of  the  missionaries, 
that  they  might  if  possible  save  the  lives  of  those 
to  whom  they  were  indebted  for  a  knowledge  of  the 
Savior. 

From  the  many  stories  which  might  be  chosen  we 
take  that  given  by  Mr.  Dreyer  and  Miss  French,  of 
the  China  Inland  mission  in  Central  Shansi.  Miss 
French  and  four  other  ladies  were  alone  on  June  27th 
when  a  mob  banged  open  their  gates  and  swarmed 
into  their  court.  At  once  they  fled  to  a  yamen  to  claim 
official  protection,   and   as   they  passed   through   the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      in 

shoutinfj^  mob,  a  servant  led  tlie  way,  and  a  young 
boy  followed  them.  When  the  official  had  promised 
to  send  the  ladies  a  four  days'  journey  to  Ping  Yang, 
where  there  were  other  missionaries,  the  boy  came 
to  Miss  French,  saying:  "1  have  been  thinking, 
teacher,  that  I  would  like  to  go  with  you  to  P'ing 
Yang,  I  know  it  may  mean  I  shall  be  killed,  but  I 
would  like  to  go." 

Miss  French  writes  of  a  colporteur  who  came  and 
offered  to  accompany  them  to  P'ing  Yang:  "This 
was  just  what  I  wanted,  though  I  scarcely  liked  to  ask 
him  thus  to  risk  his  life.  He,  however,  having  offered 
of  his  free  will,  in  spite  of  many  warnings  from 
friends  in  the  city,  I  accepted  him  gladly.  He  was 
so  good  on  the  road,  and,  besides  risking  his  life  for 
us,  did  all  he  could  for  our  comfort.  Others  offered 
to  find  hiding-places  for  us,  not  thinking  for  a  moment 
what  risks  they  would  be  running  themselves.  ^ly 
helper,  Li-ii-chang,  who  used  always  to  go  to  the  vil- 
lages with  me,  wanted  Miss  Johnson  and  myself  to 
go  to  his  home  and  hide." 

On  the  second  day  of  this  dangerous  journey  the 
ladies,  with  their  escort,  passed  through  Chao  Ch'eng, 
where  old  Pastor  Sang  was  stationed.  Miss  French 
writes :  "This  dear  old  man,  whose  heart  is  full  of 
love  and  whose  face  shows  it,  could  not  resist  coming 
to  our  cart,  drawing  our  curtain  aside  and  wishing 
us  peace,  so  little  did  he  think  of  saving  his  own  life." 

For  nearly  two  weeks  these  five  women  were  with 
five  other  women,  two  men,  and  two  children  at  P'ing 
Yang.  Fearsome  days  they  were,  with  wild  mobs 
knocking  at  the  gate,  with  reports  of  massacres  at 
other  mission  stations,  yet  a  noble  band  of  Christians 
staid  by  the  missionaries  day  and  night.  Mr.  Dreyer 
writes : 


112      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"In  addition  to  our  servants,  one  can  not  refrain 
from  mentioning  the  faithfulness  of  Mr.  Li,  to  whose 
wise  counsel  and  untiring  help,  more  than  to  any 
other,  the  success  of  our  negotiations  with  the  P'ing 
Yang  officials  is  due.  We  shall  never  forget  that 
moment  when  the  last  low,  flickering  glimmer  of  our 
lamp  of  hope  seemed  to  have  become  extinct  and  all 
was  dark  as  night,  when  anxiety  and  work  by  day 
and  frequent  watchings  by  night  for  almost  two 
months,  had  left  their  mark  upon  the  frail,  human 
frame,  and  illness  demanded  its  additional  share,  it 
was  in  response  to  a  note  of  thanks  in  deep  apprecia- 
tion of  his  noble  sacrifice  that  he  broke  down,  and, 
amid  streaming  tears,  affirmed  his  purpose  to  remain 
faithful  to  his  God  and  Savior  and  to  us.  The  scene 
is  too  sacred  to  be  described." 

Just  after  midnight,  July  15th,  these  fourteen  mis- 
sionaries were  crowded  into  four  springless  carts, 
heavily  curtained,  and  started  on  the  journey  to  Han- 
kow, which  they  reached  after  forty-five  days  of 
wearisome  travel,  after  wonderful  deliverances  from 
threatened  death.  Four  noble  men  went  with  them 
to  their  journey's  end.  One  of  them,  just  after  they 
had  left  the  mission  compound  in  the  darkness,  was 
mercilessly  knocked  from  the  cart  to  the  ground  by 
the  escort  of  soldiers.  Two  of  them  had  been  unable 
to  leave  the  city  with  the  missionaries.  They  were 
captured  and  maltreated,  but  escaped,  and  before  day- 
break they  succeeded  in  climbing  over  the  city  wall, 
and  joined  the  party  ten  miles  from  the  city. 

Miss  French  writes :  "Sang-si-fu,  the  well-known 
courier,  undertook  in  a  special  way  the  responsibility 
of  the  journey.  He  fully  realized  the  dangers  and 
difficulties.  Foremost  in  all  cases  of  emergency,  not 
fearing  to  endanger  his  life,  he  labored  hard  for  us, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      113 

denying  himself  food  that  we  might  have  it,  and  sit- 
ting up  late  at  night  to  make  chicken-broth  for  those 
of  our  party  who  were  too  ill  to  eat  other  food.  It 
was  touching  to  see  the  tender  sympathy  with  which 
these  men  performed  the  sad  office  of  laying  the  bodies 
of  the  little  children  in  the  grave.  These  children 
were  very  much  loved  by  Wang-teh,  who  had  known 
them  from  their  birth." 

It  was  on  August  3d  that  little  Mary  Lutley  died 
of  an  illness  brought  on  by  the  hardships  of  the  jour- 
ney, and  was  buried  outside  a  city  wall  in  northern 
Honan.  Two  weeks  later  Kdith  Lutley  died  when 
traveling  in  a  wheelbarrow.  The  childless  father 
wound  the  little  body  tenderly  in  a  strip  of  cloth,  then 
the  party  went  its  way  while  Wang-teh  tenderly  laid 
to  rest  the  child  he  loved  in  a  lonely  hillside  grave. 
To  these  bereaved  parents,  themselves  almost  pros- 
trated by  illness,  the  love  and  sympathy  of  these  loyal 
servants  must  have  brought  a  gleam  of  sunshine. 

When  they  had  seen  their  friends  safe  in  Hankow, 
these  four  heroes  turned  back  to  their  homes,  hoping 
to  help  other  missionaries  to  escape. 

IvOYAL    CHRISTIANS    AT    TA    MING    FU,    SHANSI 

At  this  station  of  the  China  Inland  mission  three 
women  faced  danger  alone,  yet  not  alone,  for  the 
Christians  there  were  bound  to  them  by  unusual  ties 
of  aflfection.  Once  before,  in  a  time  of  danger,  they 
had  said,  "Before  the  people  touch  you,  they  will  have 
to  kill  us."  When  communications  were  cut  off,  and 
the  missionaries  had  no  way  of  getting  money,  Deacon 
Wang  said,  "As  long  as  I  have  anything,  of  course, 
I  will  share  it  with  you." 

On  July  8th  one  of  the  ladies  wrote,  "Should  any- 
thing arise,  the  native  Christians  would  do  all  in  their 
8 


114      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

power  to  help  us."  Three  days  later,  when  they  were 
compelled  to  leave  their  homes  and  flee  to  the  hills, 
it  was  proved  that  this  trust  was  not  misplaced.  They 
moved  from  village  to  village,  living  with  Christians, 
whose  doors  were  never  closed  to  them.  When  later 
they  were  compelled  to  hide  in  caves  for  greater  se- 
curity, one  man,  Yang  Ta  Ch'uan,  still  followed  them. 
He  arranged  that  food  should  be  prepared  in  a  neigh- 
boring village  and  taken  to  them  by  a  little  boy.  A 
man  who  suspected  that  foreigners  were  hiding  in 
the  caves  followed  this  boy,  then  collected  people  in 
a  neighboring  village  and  led  them  to  the  cave.  The 
faithful  Yang  was  killed  on  the  spot ;  then  those  whom 
he  died  to  defend  were  carried  to  their  martyrdom  in 
Ta  Ming  Fu. 

DEVOTION    TO   A   CHII.D 

On  a  river  bank  in  Shansi  several  China  Inland 
missionaries,  fleeing  for  their  lives,  were  attacked  by 
the  soldiers  who  had  been  sent  nominally  to  protect 
them.  With  them  was  a  faithful  Christian  who  had 
shared  all  of  their  perils.  Little  Kenneth  McConnell, 
after  his  parents  had  been  cut  down  before  his  eyes, 
called  piteously  to  his  Chinese  friend.  The  devoted 
man  walked  into  the  midst  of  the  circle  of  murderers, 
clasped  the  little  child  in  his  arms,  and  died  with  him. 

:PAY    CHI    HO 

[Fay  Chi  Ho,  a  T'ungchou  boy,  graduated  from 
the  North  China  College  in  1898  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen, then  taught  for  two  years  in  schools  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  in  Tai  Ku  and  Fen  Chou  Fu,  Shansi.  He 
was  at  the  latter  place  during  the  terrible  summer  of 
1900.  The  following  account,  which  is  given  largely 
in  his  own  words,  is  condensed  from  ''Two  Heroes  of 


n 


PI 

o 

X 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      115 

Cathay."*  The  jMr.  and  Mrs.  Lundgrcn  and  Miss 
Eldred  referred  to  were  members  of  the  China  Inland 
Mission,  and  Mr.  Fay's  sister  was  the  wife  of  the 
teacher,  Liu  Ch'eng  Lung,  at  Tai  Ku.  The  story  of 
her  martyrdom  is  given  in  the  chapter  on  Shansi.] 

THE  STORY  OF  FEN  CHOU   FU,  SHANSI 

About  the  middle  of  June  I  heard  that  the  college  at 
T'ungchou  had  been  destroyed.  I  went  to  my  room 
overwhelmed  with  grief  for  my  dear  college  home, 
and  with  fear  for  my  parents  and  beloved  teachers  and 
friends,  for  I  did  not  know  whether  they  were  living 
or  dead.  During  the  long  two  months  that  followed, 
not  a  word  reached  us  from  beyond  the  mountains. 
The  Church  in  Shansi  walked  in  darkness. 

Crowds  of  people  kept  passing  our  mission  gate 
to  see  what  might  be  happening ;  for  the  city  was  full 
of  rumors.  The  magistrate  issued  a  proclamation  pro- 
hibiting Boxer  drill ;  but,  alas !  only  a  few  days  later 
the  proclamation  of  the  governor,  Yii  Hsien,  ordering 
that  the  Church  be  exterminated,  was  received,  and  the 
magistrate  was  obliged  to  take  down  his  own  proclama- 
tions and  post  that  of  the  governor.  Gathered  with 
the  misionaries  were  about  twenty  Christians,  whom 
we  helped  to  patrol  the  compound  by  day  and  night. 

Mr.  Atwater's  two  oldest  girls,  ten  and  eight  years 
of  age,  were  studying  in  a  little  school  in  Mr.  Pigott's 
mission  in  Shou  Yang.  Before  the  middle  of  July, 
rumors  began  to  reach  us  that  all  the  missionaries  there 
had  been  carried  to  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  and  that  later  there 
had  been  a  terrible  massacre  of  all  the  missionaries 
gathered  in  Tai  Yuan  Fu.  But  the  reports  were  so 
conflicting  that  we  still  hoped  against  hope,  until  the 


^  "  Two  Heroes  of  Cathay,"  published  by  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company, 
New  York  and  Chicago,  $i.oo. 


ii6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

terrible  news  was  confirmed.  There  was  not  one  of 
our  little  company  who  did  not  weep  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Atwater  that  sad  night  when  we  heard  of  the 
Tai  Yuan  Fu  massacre. 

Not  long  after,  one  evening  just  before  sunset,  a 
man  hurried  in  to  tell  us  that  several  hundred  soldiers 
had  come  from  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  and  were  now  outside 
the  city  ready  to  kill  us  that  very  night.  This  word 
greatly  alarmed  us ;  but  the  missionaries  had  no  way 
to  turn ;  they  could  only  await  death.  Mr.  Price  urged 
all  of  the  Chinese  to  leave  at  once,  and  flee  for  their 
lives.  After  all  the  rest  had  gone,  I  paced  up  and 
down  the  school  court,  irresolute.  It  was  already  dark, 
and  clouds  were  gathering  for  a  storm.  The  court 
was  silent  as  I  walked  there  alone.  Then  Mr.  Price 
came  searching  for  me,  and  asked: 

"Where  are  you  going  ?'^ 

"I  am  not  thinking  of  going  anywhere,"  was  my 
reply. 

"You  must  escape  now,"  said  Mr.  Price.  "We 
foreigners  would  be  recognized  wherever  we  might 
go,  so  it  is  useless  for  us  to  flee.  There  is  hope  that 
you  might  escape,  and  you  can  not  save  us  by  staying 
here." 

When  he  had  finished  speaking  he  gave  me  a  cash 
bill  amounting  to  several  dollars,  and  urged  me  to 
leave  at  once.  Still  irresolute,  I  took  the  money  with 
bowed  head  and  tears  streaming  from  my  eyes.  Again 
Mr.  Price  tried  to  hasten  my  steps,  saying, 

"I  know  that  you  love  us,  but  you  can  not  help  us 
by  dying  with  us." 

Picking  up  a  quilt,  I  grasped  Mr.  Price's  hand  in 
farewell,  and  left.  As  I  passed  out  through  the  gate 
I  saw  the  yamen  soldiers  with  lighted  lanterns  guard- 
ing it,  and  feared  that  they  would  stop  me;  but  one 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      117 

simply  remarked,  "Arc  yon  leaving  too?"  and  with 
a  groan  I  went  on  my  way. 

While  I  was  talking  with  Mr.  Price,  rain  began 
to  fall  from  the  darkening  clonds,  and  it  ponred  down 
when  I  left  the  gate.  As  I  walked  out  into  the  night 
I  knew  not  where  to  go.  I  could  only  pray  that  God 
would  lead  me,  and  guide  me  into  the  right  path. 
Suddenly  I  thought  of  a  man  named  Wang,  who  had 
been  Mr.  Atwater's  cook,  and  who  lived  not  far  from 
the  mission.  I  found  Mr.  Wang,  his  wife,  and  chil- 
dren, preparing  for  immediate  flight,  and  the  signs 
of  their  fear  increased  my  own  unrest.  A  wealthy 
neighbor  followed  me  in,  and  seeing  our  pitiable  plight 
said: 

**I  do  not  think  you  ought  to  stay  here.  Go  co 
some  other  place  about  a  hundred  miles  away,  and  set 
up  idols.  By  no  means  worship  their  Jesus  any  more." 
Then  addressing  me  alone  he  said:  "Go  back  to  the 
mission  at  once,  and  steal  the  gold  watches  and  all 
other  articles  of  value  which  you  can  find.  Then, 
wherever  you  go,  you  can  get  food  and  drink.  If 
you  do  n't  take  these  things  they  '11  soon  fall  into  the 
hands  of  outsiders.  Quick  !  quick  !  Do  n't  hesitate 
about  it.     I  '11  go  with  you." 

My  heart  was  filled  with  grief  as  the  man  poured 
out  this  evil  talk,  but  it  was  no  time  to  answer  him. 
At  once  the  thought  came  to  me,  "Since  the  people 
outside  are  so  wicked,  and  cause  me  such  sorrow, 
would  n't  it  be  better  to  go  back  to  the  mission,  to 
those  whom  I  love,  and  trust  my  life  to  God's  pro- 
tection ?" 

Immediately  I  bade  them  good-bye,  and  started  to 
retrace  my  steps.  It  was  about  nine  o'clock.  The 
mission  gate  was  not  locked,  and,  pushing  it  open,  I 
went  to  my  own  room  in  the  school  court.     The  lamp 


ii8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

was  still  burning  as  I  had  left  it  on  my  hasty  departure. 
After  resting  a  few  moments,  I  went  to  Mr.  Price's 
court.  He  and  Mr.  Lundgren  stood  there,  each  hold- 
ing a  gun.  Seeing  me,  Mr.  Price  was  both  startled 
and  pleased,  and  stepping  forward  he  took  my  hand, 
asking,  "Why  have  you  come  back?" 

I  told  him  my  story,  adding,  "I  truly  have  no  place 
to  go.    I  want  to  stay  with  you." 

Midnight  passed;  still  all  was  quiet.  Mr.  Price 
and  I  were  left  alone.  He  urged  me  to  go  and  rest; 
but  there  was  so  much  in  my  heart  that  I  knew  I  could 
not  sleep.  Then  he  said,  ''If  you  do  not  wish  to  sleep, 
come,  let  us  take  a  walk." 

Carrying  our  guns,  we  paced  back  and  forth  for 
and  hour,  talking  confidentially.     Mr.  Price  first  said : 

"It  is  past  midnight.  I  do  not  think  any  one  is 
coming  to  harm  us  to-night." 

After  we  had  conversed  a  long  time  he  said : 
"Though  I  know  that  we  are  now  in  the  greatest  dan- 
ger, I  am  glad  that  God  has  used  me  in  his  holy  work 
here.  I  am  not  sorry  that  I  came  as  a  missionary 
to  China." 

Joy  and  grief  mingled  in  my  heart  that  night; 
grief,  that  the  friends  whom  I  loved  were  in  such 
extremity  and  I  was  powerless  to  help  them;  joy,  that 
Mr.  Price  could  love  me  so  much  and  tell  me  the  secret 
thoughts  of  his  heart.     Gladly  would  I  die  with  him. 

On  July  20th  a  new  proclamation  ordering  Chris- 
tians to  recant  was  posted  in  our  gateway.  Then  the 
four  yamen  men  who  had  several  weeks  before  been 
stationed  at  our  gate  by  the  magistrate,  were  ordered 
to  prevent  the  missionaries  from  passing  out  and  in, 
also  to  shut  out  all  Chinese.  The  next  day  all  of 
the  Christians  left  the  compound  except  myself  and 
five   others.     Several   Christians   were   taken   to  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      119 

yamen  and  beaten,  and  this  persecution  was  followed 
by  many  recantations.  This  brought  to  the  mission- 
aries keener  sorrow  than  all  the  danger  and  trouble 
of  the  Boxer  persecution. 

In  this  time  of  desertion  and  sorrow  the  devotion 
of  Li  Yii  was  a  great  comfort.  He  had  joined  us 
July  6th,  coming  from  Tai  Ku  because  he  felt  that 
he  was  more  needed  in  Fen  Chou  Fu.  He  had  been 
Dr.  Atwater's  medical  assistant,  and  was  well  known 
in  the  city,  where  he  had  made  friends  with  officials 
and  men  of  business,  so  that  in  this  time  of  stress  his 
aid  was  invaluable  to  the  missionaries. 

Late  in  July  a  proclamation  of  the  governor's  was 
posted  in  the  city,  in  which  occurred  the  words,  ''Ex- 
terminate foreigners.  Native  Christians  must  leave 
the  Church  or  pay  the  penalty  with  their  lives."  Li 
Yii  and  I  talked  long  and  earnestly  of  plans  for  saving 
the  lives  of  our  beloved  missionaries.  Eastward, 
toward  the  coast,  all  was  in  tumult ;  perhaps  the  prov- 
inces of  the  south  were  just  as  bad.  Our  best  way 
would  be  to  find  a  place  of  concealment  in  the  moun- 
tains. Li  Yii  said  to  me,  "If  you  can  escape  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Price  to  the  mountains,  I  will  try  to  take 
the  Atwaters,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lundgren,  and  Miss 
Eldred  to  another  place." 

When  I  spoke  to  the  Prices  about  going,  they 
said,  ''Thank  you  for  your  love,  but  we  do  not  want 
to  desert  the  other  missionaries." 

"You  will  not  be  deserting  them,"  I  pleaded.  "If 
you  decide  to  flee  with  me,  Mr.  Li  will  do  his  best 
to  escape  with  the  others." 

Then  I  brought  forward  all  of  my  arguments  to 
persuade  them.  All  consulted  together,  and  decided 
to  go.  A  covered  cart  was  hired  to  wait  secretly  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  at  the  gate  of  an  old  temple 


120      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

north  of  the  mission.  We  were  to  walk  to  the  cart. 
We  could  not  leave  by  the  front  gate,  for  the  four 
yamen  men  were  guarding  it.  I  went  alone  to  the 
back  of  the  compound,  and  unlocked  an  unused  gate, 
removing  also  a  stone  which  helped  to  keep  it  shut. 
By  accident  this  open  gate  was  discovered^  and  two 
soldiers  were  set  to  guard  it.  A  subsequent  attempt  to 
send  bedding  and  food  to  the  mountains  failed  also. 
Then  we  gave  up  all  hope  of  escape,  especially  as  we 
were  told  that  bad  men  in  the  city  had  heard  of  our 
intention,  and  were  hiding  outside  the  city  day  and 
night,  ready  to  kill  and  rob  the  foreigners.  So  we 
talked  no  more  of  fleeing,  but  committed  our  lives 
into  the  hands  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  to  do  as  seemed 
to  him  best.  We  had  little  hope  that  we  would  be 
saved;  still  we  kept  guard  every  night,  Mr.  Atwater 
and  Mr.  Lundgren  being  on  duty  the  first  half  of  the 
night,  and  Mr.  Price  and  I  the  last  half.  At  that  time 
all  of  the  servants  had  left  us,  and  Mrs.  Price  did 
all  the  cooking,  Mrs.  Lundgren  and  Miss  Eldred  help- 
ing her.  It  was  the  hottest  time  in  summer,  and  Mrs. 
Price  stood  over  the  stove  with  flushed  face,  wet  with 
perspiration,  yet  I  never  heard  a  word  of  complaint. 
Her  face  was  always  peaceful,  and  often  she  sang  as 
she  went  about  her  work.  Li  Yii  and  I  did  all  we 
could  for  her,  washing  dishes  and  helping  her  about 
the  washing  and  other  work. 

August  had  come,  and  we  were  still  alive.  Could 
it  be  that  God,  wishing  to  show  his  mighty  power, 
would,  out  of  that  whole  province  of  Shansi,  save  the 
missions  at  Fen  Chou  Fu  and  Tai  Ku? 

The  second  day  of  August,  a  little  after  noon,  a 
man  came  into  our  court  with  the  saddest  story  that 
our  ears  had  heard  during  those  sad  summer  days. 
Two  days  before,  in  the  afternoon,  he  had  fled  from 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      121 

the  Tai  Ku  Compound  when  flame  and  sword  and  rifle 
were  doing  their  murderous  work.  Several  native 
Christians,  who  counted  not  their  lives  dear  unto  them- 
selves, had  gone  with  the  martyr  band.  Eagerly  I 
asked  about  my  sister,  her  husband  and  child.  The 
messenger  did  not  know  their  fate.  Two  days  later, 
full  accounts  of  the  massacre  reached  us,  and  I  knew 
that  they  were  among  the  slain. 

Bitter  were  the  tears  which  we  shed  together  that 
afternoon.  It  seemed  as  if  my  heart  were  breaking 
as  I  thought  of  the  cruel  death  of  the  missionaries 
whom  I  loved  so  much,  and  whom  I  should  never  again 
see  on  earth.  "My  dear  ones,"  I  cried,  "my  dear  ones, 
who  loved  and  helped  me  as  if  I  were  your  very  flesh 
and  blood,  who  brought  so  much  joy  and  peace  to  the 
lonely  one  far  from  his  home,  would  that  I  could  have 
died  for  you !"  I  wept  for  my  sister,  my  gentle,  lovely 
sister,  looking  up  into  the  heaven  to  which  she  had 
gone,  crying,  ''My  loved  sister,  my  own  sister,  would 
that  I  could  have  died  for  you !  God  grant  that  I  may 
join  you  in  a  few  days !" 

The  Tai  Ku  missionaries  were  gone,  the  Christians 
were  killed  or  scattered,  the  buildings  were  all  burned. 
We  of  Fen  Chou  Fu  alone  were  left.  We  all  thought 
that  our  day  was  at  hand,  but  God  still  kept  us  for 
nearly  two  weeks. 

The  next  day,  after  we  heard  of  the  Tai  Ku 
tragedy,  a  man  ran  in  to  tell  us  that  seven  hundred 
Boxers  were  coming  from  the  east.  They  were  those 
who  had  killed  the  missionaries  at  Tai  Ku,  and  now 
they  were  resting  in  a  village  outside  the  east  gate, 
prepared  to  attack  our  mission  after  noon.  We  all 
believed  this  report,  for  we  were  hourly  expecting 
death.  Mr.  Price  urged  me  to  leave  them  at  once. 
Several  gave  me  letters  to  home  friends.     All  shook 


122      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

hands  with  me  at  parting,  and  Mrs.  Atwater  said, 
with  tears  in  her  eyes,  "May  the  Lord  preserve  your 
life,  and  enable  you  to  tell  our  story  to  others !" 

Miss  Eldred  had  prepared  for  herself  a  belt  into 
which  were  stitched  forty  taels  of  silver.  She  thought 
that  she  was  standing  at  the  gate  of  death,  so  she 
gave  it  to  me  for  my  traveling  expenses.  Before  I 
went  out  of  the  gate  I  saw  Mrs.  Price  holding  her  little 
daughter  to  her  heart,  kissing  her  through  her  tears, 
and  heard  her  say,  ''If  the  Boxers  come  to-day,  I  want 
my  little  Florence  to  go  before  I  do." 

It  was  two  o'clock.  I  saw  several  hundred  men 
standing  outside  the  gate.  Most  of  these  were  loafers, 
who  had  come  as  to  a  show ;  some  were  ruffians,  hop- 
ing for  a  chance  to  loot  the  mission.  My  heart  was 
fearful ;  but  I  kept  a  calm  exterior,  and  so  passed 
through  the  crowd  unharmed. 

I  was  determined  not  to  start  for  home  until  I 
knew  what  fate  befell  my  foreign  friends.  Where 
should  I  hide?  I  knew  no  one  outside  the  Church, 
so  I  decided  to  look  for  my  former  friend,  Mr.  Han, 
who  had  recanted.  When  I  reached  his  home  I  saw  an 
expression  of  fear  on  his  face.  He  was  just  preparing 
to  leave,  and  said,  "You  can  go  with  me." 

I  did  not  know  where  he  was  taking  me,  but  fol- 
lowed him  silently  through  crooks  and  turns  until  we 
reached  an  inn  inside  the  south  gate.  Entering  the 
inn  yard,  we  went  to  a  small,  two-story  building  in  the 
rear,  and,  going  into  the  upper  room,  shut  the  door. 
Then  we  dared  to  speak. 

Mr.  Han  said,  "This  is  a  very  retired  spot,  and 
the  Boxers  will  not  easily  find  us  here." 

It  seemed  to  me  a  very  quiet,  peaceful  refuge; 
but  when  I  thought  that  my  foreign  friends  would 
soon  leave  this  earth,  my  heart  burned  with  unrest^ 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      123 

and  I  paced  to  and  fro,  listening  intently  to  every 
sound.  But  there  was  no  sound  of  tumult  in  the  city 
all  that  afternoon. 

Mr.  Han  said  to  nio :  "Brother,  I  am  very  glad 
that  you  have  left  the  mission,  but  I  think  you  are  still 
in  great  danger.  I  exhort  you  to  go  at  once  to  the 
yamen  and  beseech  the  magistrate  to  permit  you  to 
recant,  and  also  to  give  you  a  card  of  proof  that  you 
have  left  the  Church,  such  as  I  have.  This  will  insure 
your  life." 

I  replied:  "Thank  you  for  your  interest,  but  this 
plan  does  not  commend  itself  to  me.  From  a  little 
child  I  have  been  with  the  missionaries;  for  about 
fifteen  years  I  have  been  in  the  mission  schools.  I 
have  had  more  instruction  than  you  have.  I  shall 
certainly  not  give  up  my  religion ;  were  I  to  do  it,  my 
heart  would  never  again  be  at  peace." 

[We  must  omit  Mr.  Fay's  detailed  account  of  the 
two  days  that  followed.  Again  and  again  came  temp- 
tations to  recant,  but  his  final  answer  was :  "Please  do 
not  tempt  me  any  more.  To  me  it  seems  better  not 
to  recant  and  die  than  to  recant  and  live."  He  was 
prostrated  by  severe  illness  the  day  after  his  flight 
from  the  mission,  and  writes : 

"That  night  I  was  left  alone  in  the  inn.  My  sick- 
ness was  no  better,  and  a  heavy  burden  was  on  me. 
My  heart  went  out  most  toward  my  parents,  far  away 
in  T'ungchou.  If  they  should  hear  of  the  cruel 
murder  of  my  sister,  they  would  be  overwhelmed  with 
anguish.  God  seemed  very  near  to  me  that  night, 
even  at  my  very  side,  comforting  my  heart-sorrow, 
and  I  prayed  that  he  would  do  for  me  according  to  his 
own  sweet  will." 

The  third  day  saw  him  back  in  the  mission  com- 
pound, and  glad  indeed  were  the  missionaries  to  see 


124      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

him.  Li  Yii  had  been  imprisoned  and  cruelly  beaten, 
and  during  their  few  remaining  days  on  earth  Mr. 
Fay  was  the  only  one  who  could  go  to  the  yamen. 
Daily  he  went  there  to  see  his  imprisoned  friend,  and 
often  to  intercede  with  the  officials  for  the  mission- 
aries. He  writes,  *'I  really  do  not  know  whence  my 
courage  came  these  days." 

Mr.  Fay  pictures  life  in  the  mission  compound 
that  last  week :  "The  sufferings  of  the  missionaries 
were  indeed  sore.  Their  patience  and  perfect  trust 
in  God  greatly  moved  my  heart."  He  describes  the 
heart-to-heart  talks  with  Mr.  Price  as  the  last  half 
of  every  night  they  patrolled  the  courts  in  the  moon- 
light, and  the  twilight  romps  with  Florence  Price  and 
Celia  and  Bertha  Atwater,  the  good-night  kiss,  and 
their  words:  ''Good-night,  Mr.  Fay.  Good-night. 
Pleasant  dreams." 

On  August  1 2th  a  new  official  arrived  at  Fen  Chou 
Fu.  He  was  the  tool  of  the  governor,  who  had  sent 
him  expressly  to  murder  the  foreigners.  Only  two 
days  later,  at  noon,  came  a  message  from  the  yamen 
to  the  missionaries.  They  must  be  ready  the  next 
morning  to  start  for  Tientsin  under  a  guard  of  Chinese 
soldiers.  Sad  indeed  were  the  hearts  of  the  doomed 
band;  for  they  suspected  treachery,  and  dreaded  the 
hardships  of  the  journey,  especially  for  Mrs.  Atwater, 
who  was  not  well.  Moreover,  they  lacked  money  for 
necessities  by  the  way.  Twice  Mr.  Fay,  at  great 
personal  risk,  went  to  the  yamen  to  plead  that  the 
missionaries  be  allowed  to  remain,  but  the  answer  was : 
"There  is  no  help  for  it.  The  prefect  says  that  if 
you  do  n't  go  yourselves,  you  will  be  driven  out  of  the 
city  with  whips." 

Later  that  day  Mr.  Fay  went  to  bid  his  imprisoned 
friend  farewell.    Li  Yii  said:    "A  myriad  times  I  be- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      125 

sccch  you  not  to  go  with  the  missionaries,  for  I  have 
been  told  that  all  are  to  be  killed  before  they  reach 
P'ing  Yao  (twenty-seven  miles  away).  If  you  go. 
you  can  not  help  them,  and  you  will  probably  lose  your 
life." 

Mr.  Fay  replied:  ''If  I  do  not  go  with  them  I 
am  afraid  their  difficulties  on  the  journey  will  be  still 
greater.     Perhaps  I  can  help  them  a  little." 

That  evening  Mr.  Price  said  to  him:  ''We  must 
go  to-morrow,  though  I  know  that  we  shall  meet  dan- 
ger on  the  way.  We  can  only  intrust  ourselves  to  the 
care  of  the  Almighty  Lord,  to  do  as  he  wills.  If  you 
want  to  go  with  us,  you  will  be  of  great  assistance 
on  the  journey,  but  you  will  share  our  danger.  If  you 
wish  to  flee  alone,  I  will  give  you  a  little  money  for 
your  traveling  expenses." 

Mr.  Fay  answered,  "I  have  already  decided,  no 
matter  what  comes,  to  go  with  you." 

Then  came  a  sleepless  night,  filled  with  prepara- 
tions for  the  journey,  and  with  apprehensions  as  they 
saw  soldiers  both  within  and  without  the  mission  walls. 
At  eight  in  the  morning  four  carts  were  waiting,  two 
with  awnings  for  passengers,  two  for  their  baggage. 
Before  they  started  Mr.  Price  drew  Mr.  Fay  aside, 
saying,  "Although  we  are  glad  that  you  have  decided 
to  go  with  us,  still  I  want  you  to  promise  that,  when 
danger  comes,  if  there  is  a  chance  for  you  to  escape, 
you  will  make  every  effort  to  save  your  life,  so  that 
afterward  you  can  tell  our  story  to  others."  Mr.  Price 
then  gave  him  seven  or  eight  taels  of  silver,  saying, 
"Carry  this  on  your  person,  so  that  if  you  escape  you 
will  have  it  for  traveling  expenses."  He  also  gave 
him  a  piece  of  blue  cloth  about  three  inches  long,  on 
which  he  had  written,  "This  is  a  trustworthy  man; 
he  will  tell  you  of  our  fate.    C.  W.  Price." 


126      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Mr.  Fay  rode  in  the  first  cart  with  the  Atwater 
family  and  Mrs.  Lundgren.  Let  him  tell  his  own 
story  now:] 

It  was  after  nine  o'clock  when  we  left  the  mission. 
It  was  a  clear,  beautiful  day,  with  a  gentle  wind 
blowing,  a  bright  sun  shining  down,  and  not  a  cloud 
within  ten  thousand  miles.  As  we  drove  out  of  the 
gate  we  saw  the  streets  thronged  with  a  dense  crowd 
of  spectators.  There  were  tens  of  thousands,  and 
when  we  left  the  city  gate  behind,  many  flocked  after 
us  and  stood  watching  until  we  were  out  of  sight. 
So  we  left  Fen  Chou  Fu  on  that  fateful  morning, 
August  15th. 

On  both  sides  of  the  carts,  before  and  behind, 
walked  twenty  soldiers.  We  passed  through  several 
villages,  and  every  man,  woman,  and  child  was  out 
to  stare  at  us.  A  young  soldier  walked  close  behind 
my  cart,  never  taking  his  eyes  off  me.  Several  times 
he  spoke  to  me,  giving  dark  hints,  of  which  I  did  not 
catch  the  meaning.  Finally  he  heaved  a  great  sigh, 
saying, 

"Alas  for  you — so  very  young!" 

The  soldier  walking  at  the  side  looked  sternly  at 
the  speaker,  and  said  something  to  him  which  I  did 
not  hear,  but  I  heard  the  reply, 

"This  is  our  own  countryman,  and  not  a  foreigner." 

When  I  saw  the  expression  on  their  faces,  and 
heard  these  words,  suddenly  it  flashed  across  me  that 
they  had  some  deep  meaning,  and  I  asked  the  young 
soldier  what  was  up. 

*T  do  n't  know,"  he  replied. 

"If  anything  is  going  to  happen,"  I  said,  "please 
tell  me." 

He  hung  his  head  and  said  nothing,  but  followed 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      127 

still  closer  to  the  cart,  and  after  a  while  said  to  me 
plainly : 

"You  ought  to  escape  at  once,  for  only  a  short 
distance  ahead  we  arc  to  kill  the  foreigners." 

I  jumped  down  from  the  cart,  but  another  soldier 
came  up,  saying,  "Do  n't  go  away." 

The  soldier  who  had  first  talked  with  me  said, 
"You  can't  go  yet;  you  must  first  leave  your  money 
with  us." 

I  said,  "I  have  only  a  little,  barely  enough  for  my 
journey." 

But  I  knew  that  they  would  not  let  me  oflf  without 
money,  so  I  gave  my  watch  to  the  last  soldier.  An- 
other demanded  money,  saying,  "If  you  have  no  money, 
you  may  give  me  your  boots." 

So  I  took  off  my  newly-purchased  boots,  and  gave 
them  to  him,  putting  on  the  well-worn  shoes  which 
he  gave  me  in  exchange.  Another  soldier  took  away 
my  straw  hat  and  the  whip  which  I  carried  in  my  hand. 
It  happened  that  just  at  this  point  a  little  path  branched 
off  from  the  main  road  through  a  sorghum-field.  I 
started  off  on  the  path.  While  I  had  been  talking 
with  the  soldiers  Mr.  Atwater  had  conversed  with  the 
two  ladies,  and  had  not  noticed  our  words.  As  I  left 
my  friends  I  took  a  last  look  at  them,  saying  in  my 
heart,  "I  fear  that  I  shall  never  again  on  earth  see 
your  faces." 

I  had  no  chance  to  speak  to  them,  for  the  village 
where  they  were  to  be  killed  was  only  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away,  the  carts  had  not  stopped,  and  many  people 
were  following  close  behind.  A  crowd  was  also  coming 
out  from  the  village  which  they   were  approaching. 

I  had  walked  only  a  short  distance  on  the  little  path 
when  I  heard  footsteps  following,  and  looking  back 


128      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

I  saw  that  it  was  the  two  soldiers  hastening  after  me. 
My  heart  stood  still,  for  I  thought  they  were  coming  to 
kill  me.  I  did  not  dare  to  run,  for  they  had  rifles  in 
their  hands.  Soon  they  overtook  me,  one  seizing  my 
queue  and  the  other  my  arm,  saying,  "You  must  have 
some  money ;  we  '11  only  let  you  escape  with  your 
life."  Before  I  had  time  to  answer,  the  soldier 
snatched  from  my  purse  all  the  money  which  Mr.  Price 
had  given  me.  I  entreated  them  to  leave  me  a  little, 
for  I  had  many  hundred  miles  to  travel  before  I  would 
reach  my  home.  They  had  a  little  conscience ;  for 
dividing  the  silver  between  them,  they  took  out  a 
small  piece  amounting  to  about  a  tael  and  gave  it  to 
me.    Then  they  hurried  back. 

When  I  had  gone  on  a  little  farther  I  heard  a  loud 
rifle  report.  I  was  almost  convinced  that  they  were 
indeed  going  to  kill  the  foreigners.  I  ran  with  all  my 
might.  It  was  about  one  o'clock,  and  the  sun  beat 
down  fiercely.  After  I  had  gone  several  miles  my 
mouth  was  dry,  blood  flowed  from  my  nose,  my  feet 
ached.  After  a  little  rest  I  pressed  on  with  fearful, 
doubting  heart,  exhausted  and  thirsty.  I  looked  up  to 
the  sky  with  a  sigh,  and  asked  myself :  "Can  the 
great  Lord  who  rules  heaven  and  earth  permit  evil  men 
under  this  bright  heaven,  in  this  clear  light  of  day,  to 
murder  these  innocent  men  and  women,  these  little 
children?  It  can  not  be.  Perhaps  I  can  still  reach 
P'ing  Yao,  and  look  into  the  faces  of  those  whom 
I  love." 

[But  Mr.  Fay  could  get  no  trace  of  his  friends  at 
P'ing  Yao,  where  they  were  to  have  spent  the  night, 
and  the  certainty  that  they  had  been  killed  oppressed 
his  heart  as  he  threw  his  jaded  body  on  a  hard  brick 
bed,  and,  supperless,  fell  into  the  deep  sleep  of  ex- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      129 

haustion.  The  next  day  he  started  back,  determined 
at  any  risk  to  learn  the  fate  of  the  missionaries.  Let 
him  tell  the  story  of  his  stopping;  at  an  inn  about 
noon   for  the  first  meal  in  over  twenty-four  hours:] 

Sitting  down  I  heard  loud  talking  and  laughter 
among  the  guests. 

One  said,  "There  were  ten  ocean  men  killed,  three 
men,  four   women,  and  three  little  devils." 

Another  added :  "Lii  Chang  San  yesterday  morn- 
ing came  ahead  with  twenty  soldiers,  and  waited  in  the 
village.  When  the  foreigners,  with  their  soldier  escort, 
arrived,  a  gun  was  fired  for  a  signal,  and  all  the  soldiers 
set  to  work  at  once." 

Then  one  after  another  added  grewsome  details, 
ending  with  a  description  of  the  flinging  of  the  poor 
bodies  into  a  wayside  pit. 

Just  then  a  w^aiter  set  my  food  before  me.  Had 
the  emperor  sent  me  the  choicest  viands  from  his 
table,  I  could  not  have  swallowed  a  morsel.  Unable  to 
control  my  emotion,  I  left  the  inn  at  once,  and  walked 
back  and  forth  outside  the  yard,  weeping  as  I  walked. 

[We  can  give  only  in  bare  outline  the  story  of  Mr. 
Fay's  return  to  Fen  Chou  Fu  and  his  visit  to  Tai  Ku 
to  get  further  details  of  the  massacres  and  to  beg  a 
little  money  for  the  long  journey  to  Tientsin;  then 
of  the  long  days  and  longer  nights,  when  he  made 
his  way  over  mountain  and  plain  to  tell  the  sad  story 
of  Shansi.  Death  and  desolation  were  behind  him, 
and  what  awaited  him  when  he  reached  home?  Would 
father  and  mother,  teachers  and  friends  be  there  to 
welcome  him?     He  writes:] 

I  wonder  whence  my  wonderful  strength  came 
those    days    when    I    walked    thirty    or    forty    miles, 

9 


I30      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

scorched  in  the  daytime  by  the  summer  heat,  chilled 
at  night  by  the  mountain  air.  I  had  no  bedding,  no 
extra  clothing,  and  could  not  lie  down  to  sieep  at  night. 
I  would  double  up  on  a  k'ang  with  my  hands  clasping 
my  legs,  my  tired  head  resting  on  my  knees,  and  get 
all  the  rest  I  could  while  my  body  shivered  with  cold. 
Two  nights,  when  inns  refused  to  harbor  me,  I 
crouched  on  the  street  under  projecting  eaves  until  day 
broke.  I  could  buy  only  the  poorest  food,  and  even  of 
that  I  dared  not  eat  enough  to  satisfy  my  hunger, 
for  my  money  was  almost  gone.  This  unusual  strength 
was  surely  given  me  by  my  Heavenly  Father. 

After  I  had  passed  through  the  mountains,  day  after 
day  I  met  hundreds  of  thousands  of  refugees,  soldiers, 
and  others.  The  soldiers  were  looting  right  and  left 
as  they  went,  sweeping  the  country  like  a  scourge  of 
locusts,  and  the  frightened  inhabitants  fled  before  their 
coming.  This  stream  of  life  swept  westward.  I  alone 
was  going  eastward. 

[A  strange  incident  of  the  journey  was  finding 
at  Cheng  Ting  Fu,  near  the  western  border  of  the 
province  of  Chihli,  three  English  missionaries  who 
had  taken  refuge  with  Catholic  missionaries  in  the 
great  cathedral,  and  had  been  protected  by  good 
officials  who  had  kept  the  city  gates  closed  against 
both  Boxers  and  pillaging  soldiers.  Now  there  was 
an  added  motive  for  hastening  to  Tientsin — that  succor 
might  be  brought  as  soon  as  possible  to  this  band 
so  strangely  saved  from  that  devastating  storm.  An- 
other exciting  episode  was  stealing  a  ride  on  a  train 
which  carried  him  swiftly  over  the  fifty  miles  west 
of  Pao  Ting  Fu.  In  a  shop  at  Pao  Ting  Fu  he  asked 
the  proprietor: 

"Are  the  foreigners  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  still  living?" 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      131 

"They  were  all  killed  long  ago,  and  their  houses 
burned.     How  is  it  with  the  foreigners  of  Shansi?''^ 

"They  also  were  killed  and  their  houses  burned." 

"Truly  it  was  the  will  of  heaven!"  he  ejaculated. 

"It  was  indeed  the  will  of  heaven,"  Mr.  Fay  re- 
plied, but  with  a  very  different  feeling  in  his  heart. 

Mr.  Fay  spent  his  last  cent  in  hiring  a  boat  to  take 
him  as  near  Tientsin  as  the  boatmen  would  venture, 
and  buying  a  little  food  for  the  journey.  The  last  day 
he  had  not  a  morsel  to  eat,  and  very  glad  was  he 
at  sunset  to  see  before  him  the  west  gate  of  Tientsm 
Near  it  he  saw  some  Japanese.  It  was  his  first  sight  of 
foreign  soldiers.     He  continues:] 

I   walked   east   on   the   great   street   through   the 
ruined,  deserted  city,  not  a  house  standing  on  either 
side,  not  a  human  being  to  be  seen  until  I  reached  the 
drum  tower.     Soon  I  saw  a  large  building  with  many 
lanterns  in  front  of  it,  and  American  soldiers  stand- 
ing on  guard.     I  asked  if  there  was  an  officer  there, 
and  immediately  they  led  me  into  the  presence  of  a 
captain.     I  was  ragged  and  dirty,  my  face  was  thm 
and  sunburnt,  yet  he  asked  me  to  be  seated.     From 
the  belt  where  it  had  been  so  carefully  concealed   I 
took  the  tiny  piece  of  blue  cloth  which  Mr.  Price  had 
given  me  a  few  hours  before  his  death,  and  handed 
it  to  him;  then  I  told  him  briefly  the  story  of  Shansi. 
He  listened  with  a  sad  face,  then  said  with  a  sigh : 

"What  you  say  grieves  me  deeply.  Now  I  want 
to  send  some  one  with  you  to  the  yamen  of  the  Pro- 
visional  Government." 

Before  sending  me  away  he  asked  if  I  was  hungry. 
Not  a  morsel  had  passed  my  lips  that  day,  and  I  re- 
plied :  „ 

"I  am  not  simply  hungry;  I  am  famished. 


132      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

The  captain  commanded  a  soldier  to  bring  me  rice 
and  bread,  and  I  ate  until  my  hunger  was  satisfied. 

The  next  day  the  British  consul  sent  for  me  and 
made  particular  inquiries  about  Cheng  Ting  Fu.  How 
I  hoped  that  he  would  soon  be  able  to  send  soldiers 
to  the  relief  of  the  foreigners  there ! 

A  few  days  later  I  was  on  my  way  to  T'ungchou 
and  Peking  to  try  to  get  some  trace  of  my  parents. 
It  was  impossible  to  make  the  journey  alone,  for 
foreign  soldiers  were  camped  all  along  the  road,  and 
they  often  shot  down  Chinese  without  the  least  prov- 
ocation. Through  the  influence  of  an  officer  I 
traveled  with  a  British  convoy  going  by  boat,  occupy- 
ing quarters  on  a  major's  boat  with  his  Sikh  soldiers 
and  cook.  I  know  that  the  major  was  not  a  Christian 
man,  for  he  smoked  and  drank  all  day  long,  and  was 
constantly  cursing,  striking,  and  kicking  his  men, 
especially  his  cook.  Every  day  at  noon  the  major 
would  go  with  four  Sikhs  to  villages  several  miles  from 
the  river  for  loot,  always  compelling  me  to  accompany 
him  as  interpreter.  He  would  catch  the  first  man 
whom  he  saw  in  a  village  and  compel  him  to  act  as 
guide  to  the  homes  of  the  rich.  So  successful  was 
he  on  these  raids  that  by  the  time  he  reached  T'ung- 
chou he  had  three  new  carts,  three  donkeys,  five  or  six 
sheep,   and   much   clothing   and   bric-a-brac. 

Though  it  is  only  eighty  miles  from  Tientsin  to 
T'ungchou  we  were  over  a  week  on  the  way,  for 
the  current  was  against  us,  the  boats  were  heavily 
loaded,  and  it  was  necessary  to  go  several  miles  back 
from  the  river  every  day  to  find  men  who  could  be 
impressed  to  drag  the  boats.  At  last  we  were  near 
my  village  home,  which  was  about  eight  miles  from 
T'ungchou  and  half  a  mile  from  the  river.  Here 
I  got  permission  from  the  major  to  leave  the  boat,  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      133 

walked  toward  my  home,  my  heart  bounding  with  the 
hope  that  I  might  soon  look  into  the  faces  of  parents 
and  other  loved  ones. 

Our  village  was  near  the  highway  between  Tientsin 
and  T'ungchou.  As  soon  as  I  reached  the  edge  of 
the  village  I  saw  the  highway  thronged  with  foreign 
soldiers,  but  when  I  entered  the  village  a  deathly 
silence  brooded  over  all,  and  there  was  not  even  the 
shadow  of  a  living  thing.  A  feeling  of  deep  depres- 
sion swept  over  me ;  still  I  reasoned  that  all  of  the 
villagers  would  be  fearful  during  this  time  of  anarchy, 
and  must  have  sought  a  refuge  from  the  soldiers  long 
ago.  As  I  walked  toward  my  home  I  thought,  "Per- 
haps I  will  find  some  one  who  has  the  courage  to 
stay  here."  My  steps  drew  near  the  spot  where  the 
houses  of  my  parents,  of  my  oldest  brother,  and  of  my 
uncle  had  stood  close  together.  My  father's  house 
was  gone !  The  other  houses  stood  as  before,  so  the 
destruction  must  have  been  the  work  of  the  Boxers. 
With  my  heart  in  a  tumult  I  walked  on,  and  suddenly 
saw  a  man  leaving  my  oldest  brother's  back  yard. 
As  soon  as  he  saw  me,  he  turned  to  run.  At  once  the 
thought  came  to  me  that  it  might  be  my  second  brother, 
and  I  called,  "Brother!  brother!"  He  turned  and  stood 
a  moment,  as  if  unable  to  believe  that  it  was  my  voice, 
and  running  nearer  I  saw  that  it  was  indeed  my 
brother.  Neither  of  us  could  speak,  but  clasped  in  each 
other's  arms  we  burst  into  uncontrollable  weeping. 
As  soon  as  I  could  get  my  voice,  I  asked : 

"Where  are   father  and   mother?" 

"They  are  both  dead,"  he  replied  between  his  sobs. 

Strength  left  my  limbs,  and  lying  on  the  ruins  of 
our  house  I  cried :  "My  loved  parents,  would  that 
I  could  have  died  with  you !  O,  that  I  might  go  now 
and  see  your  faces!" 


134      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

From  a  tumbledown  room  in  my  brother's  yard 
there  crawled  out  a  woman  with  disheveled  hair  and 
face  black  with  ashes,  barefooted,  with  stained  and 
ragged  garments.  In  this  crippled  woman,  more  for- 
lorn than  a  beggar,  I  could  hardly  recognize  my  second 
brother's  wife.  She  wailed  as  she  came  toward  me, 
and  behind  her  came  the  nephew  whom  I  loved,  Ch'ang 
So,  grown  tall  during  our  two  years  of  separation,  but 
now  thin,  ragged,  sunburnt,  and  sad. 

Then  my  brother  asked,  "What  about  our  two 
sisters  ?" 

'*I  know  not  whether  our  sister  in  Shantung  is 
living  or  dead.  Our  sister  in  Shansi,  her  husband  and 
child,  were  killed  by  the  Boxers." 

Tears  flowed  afresh,  for  to  all  four  of  us  had  come 
tidings  of  the  death  of  dearly-loved  ones.  My  sister- 
in-law  first  forced  back  her  tears,  saying: 

**We  must  be  careful  to  let  no  one  hear  our  crying, 
and  carry  word  of  it  to  the  Boxers,  for  they  com- 
manded that  not  one  of  us  shed  a  tear  for  the  dead." 

Although  the  allies  were  occupying  Peking  and  all 
the  surrounding  region,  the  Boxers  were  still  prac- 
ticing, and  in  the  town  of  Niu  Mu  T'un,  only  a  few 
miles  away,  there  was  still  a  camp  of  over  a  thousand. 
My  brother  urged  me  to  take  refuge  in  Peking  as 
speedily  as  possible ;  for  in  our  village  I  was  in  danger 
both  of  being  killed  by  the  Boxers  and  of  being  im- 
pressed as  a  laborer  by  the  foreign  soldiers.  He  ac- 
companied me  to  T'ungchou  that  night,  fearing  that 
I  would  meet  danger  on  the  way.  Before  we  started, 
a  neighbor  had  hastened  to  take  word  to  the  Boxers, 
and  two  of  them  seized  their  weapons  and  started  in 
pursuit.  Fortunately  they  took  a  different  road,  so  my 
Heavenly  Father  saved  me  from  this  unseen  danger. 

During  that  walk  to  T'ungchou  my  brother  told 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      135 

me  the  sad  details  of  my  parents'  last  days  on  earth.* 
As  I  listened  to  this  story,  bitter  grief  filled  my  heart. 
Though  I  knew  that  my  parents  had  died  for  the  truth, 
and  that  they  were  happy  in  heaven,  I  could  not  think 
of  that,  but  only  of  the  sufferings  of  those  days  on 
earth. 

My  brother  and  I  did  not  make  our  journey  in 
peace.  Several  times  we  met  foreign  soldiers,  who 
pointed  their  guns  at  us,  then  searched  us  for  money 
or  valuables.  Fortunately  we  had  little  that  they 
wanted. 

We  spent  much  time  the  following  day  walking 
through  the  ruined  streets  of  T'ungchou.  There  was 
not  a  woman  or  child  to  be  seen,  and  hardly  a  man. 
Corpses  floated  on  the  river ;  everywhere  were  seen 
the  effects  of  cruelty  and  lust.  The  Russians  had  been 
worst  in  their  atrocities;  then  came  the  French  and 
the  Germans.  The  city  was  desolate.  To  this  had  her 
incense-burning,  her  worship  of  the  gods,  her  efforts 
to  exterminate  the  foreigners,  brought  her.  We  stood 
also  by  the  ruins  of  our  own  mission.  There  was 
nothing  to  be  seen  but  broken  brick  and  tile.  Not  even 
the  foundations  of  the  buildings  could  be  distinguished. 

About  noon  that  day,  September  17th,  I  reached 
Peking,  and  soon  I  saw  one  of  my  college  teachers. 
My  heart  bounded  with  joy,  and  I  called  his  name  with 
a  loud  cry.  Leaping  from  the  cart,  he  ran  forward 
and  grasped  my  hand.  The  T'ungchou  missionaries 
and  the  native  Christians  who  had  passed  through  the 
siege  with  them  were  then  living  at  Yii  Wang  Fu, 
in  Peking.  When  I  entered  the  gate  that  afternoon 
I  saw  men,  women,  and  children  whom  I  had  known 
from  a  little  child.  Many  friends  gathered  about  me, 
weeping.    The  joy  of  meeting  these  friends  struggled 


'='This  story  is  given  among  the  T'ungchou  narratives. 


136      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

with  grief  in  my  heart;  for  as  I  glanced  from  one  to 
another  I  did  not  see  the  faces  of  my  father  and 
mother. 

That  evening  many  gathered  together  to  hear  me 
tell  of  Shansi,  and  of  my  long  journey  to  Peking,  and 
many  wept  as  they  listened.  Since  then  I  have  told 
many  times  of  God's  deliverance  and  grace,  witnessing 
to  his  protection  and  guidance.  When  I  look  back 
over  my  past,  I  see  many  places  where  God  stretched 
out  his  hand  for  special  support  and  protection ;  so, 
though  body  and  heart  have  passed  through  sore  trials, 
I  am  filled  with  thankfulness  because  God  by  his  holy 
hand  has  led  me  through  all  distresses  to  a  place  of 
peace  and  safety.* 

I.OYAI.  CHRISTIANS  AT  TAI  KU,  SHANSI 

If  loving  sympathy  could  sweeten  the  cup  of  death, 
the  six  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  whose  lives 
were  offered  in  sacrifice  on  the  last  day  of  July,  did 
not  drink  a  bitter  cup.  Through  the  long  weeks  of 
agonizing  suspense,  about  thirty  Christians  waited  with 
them.  When  the  end  came,  eight  died  with  them  in 
that  mission  compound,  and  a  larger  number  escaped 
over  the  wall,  some  to  meet  martyrdom  almost  imme- 
diately. The  stories  of  only  three  of  these  faithful 
ones  is  told  here. 

CHANG   CHEN   YU 

When  the  Boxers  were  swarming  into  the  mission 
compound,  and  the  missionaries  had  fled  to  their  last 
refuge,  the  tiny  back  court  where  they  met  martyrdom, 
a  faithful  servant,  running  into  the  little  court,  passed 
at  the  gateway  a  boy  of  eighteen  armed  with  a  huge 

*  Mr.  Fay  is  now  in  America,  and  hopes,  by  several  years  of  study  in 
Oberlin  College,  to  fit  himself  to  do  better  work  for  China's  redemption. 


Chf.n  ^T's  (  )i  Di  R  likoiiii  K  Chant;  Chen  YO 

KiNc  HsiANc;  Hsi 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      137 

knife,  who  stood  guarding  the  entrance.  His  face 
was  smiHng ;  his  mien  was  fearless. 

''Run  quick,  Chen  Yii,"  gasped  the' servant ;  "the 
Boxers  are  inside.'' 

"I  shall  not  go,"  said  the  boy,  calmly. 

Inside  the  gate  were  the  missionaries  and  Ruth. 
For  them  there  was  no  escape.  **Go,  go  quickly,"  said 
Miss  Bird  to  the  servant ;  "you  can  not  help  us ;"  and 
soon  he  was  over  the  wall.  The  next  day  he  told  his 
sad  story  to  the  doomed  band  of  missionaries  at  Fen 
Chou  Fu. 

Who  was  the  boy  that,  even  after  hope  was  lost, 
sacrificed  his  life  in  guarding  that  gateway  to  the 
missionaries'  last  retreat?  He  was  a  student  in  the 
mission  school.  Long  weeks  before,  when  the  dark 
cloud  was  first  casting  its  shadow  over  Tai  Ku,  the 
school  had  closed.  Then  Chang  Chen  Yii's  mother, 
who  had  long  been  a  servant  with  the  missionaries, 
went  to  her  own  home ;  but  Chen  Yii  and  his  brother, 
Chen  Fu,  two  years  older,  determined  to  stay  with 
their  teachers.  During  those  long  weeks  of  horror, 
no  face  was  brighter  than  Chen  Yii's.  His  brother 
would  sometimes  start  up  from  sleep  with  tearful  eyes, 
and  tell  of  seeing  his  father  and  mother  tortured  by 
Boxers.  But  neither  sleeping  nor  waking  dreams 
troubled  the  bright  lad  of  eighteen.  No  one  was  more 
helpful  to  the  missionaries  than  he,  always  ready  for 
any  work,  in  the  kitchen  or  on  the  fortifications,  un- 
wearied by  labor,  undaunted  by  danger.  Two  weeks 
before  the  end,  when  two  helpers  with  their  families 
and  Ruth  were  making  preparations  to  flee  to  the 
mountains,  Chen  Yii  came  to  his  brother  to  see  if  they 
should  go  too. 

"I  shall  not  go,"  said  the  younger  boy,  firmly. 

The  two  brothers  knelt  in  prayer,  then  Chen  Yii 


138      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

said,  "Our  father  and  mother  are  old,  and  one  of  us 
should  be  left  to  care  for  them.  You  go  now ;  I  've 
determined  that,  come  what  may,  I  '11  stay  to  the  end 
with  the  teachers  whom  I  so  dearly  love." 

The  brother  went  that  night,  but  in  a  few  days 
he  was  back  in  the  mission  compound.  When  the 
Boxers  broke  in,  he  ran  about  the  buildings,  calling 
for  his  younger  brother.  No  answer  came,  and  remem- 
bering the  agreement  that  one  of  them  should  die  with 
the  missionaries  and  one  should  try  to  escape  for  the 
old  mother's  sake,  he  made  a  dash  for  life.  Over  the 
compound  wall,  up  the  high  city  wall,  a  perilous  climb, 
down  on  the  outside,  with  the  help  of  an  outgrowing 
tree,  days  of  wandering  and  peril,  then  Chen  Fu  stood 
again  in  the  mission  compound,  and  as  he  looked  over 
its  pathetic  ruins,  neighbors  told  him  of  those  last 
moments  after  he  had  fled.  Later  he  found  the  remains 
of  the  brave  boy  who  faced  death  so  joyfully  because 
he  loved  his  teachers  and  his  God. 

Kuo  we:i  hua 

Another  schoolboy  of  eighteen  was  in  that  loyal 
band  of  heroes.  He  was  the  only  child  of  a  man  of 
over  sixty,  who  worked  for  Miss  Bird.  His  mother, 
who  was  not  a  Church  member,  lived  in  a  village 
twelve  miles  from  Tai  Ku.  When  the  school  closed, 
June  23d,  he  remained  still  with  the  missionaries  and 
their  Chinese  friends.  His  strong  hands  and  willing 
heart  made  him  one  of  the  most  helpful  of  those  who 
worked  on  the  defenses  by  day  and  watched  by  night, 
during  that  first  week  of  rumor  and  alarm.  When 
the  danger  increased,  he  said  to  his  old  father,  "Do  n't 
stay  here;  you  go  home,  and  I  will  work  for  Miss 
Bird  in  your  place."  So  the  father  went.  Once  after 
that,  Wei  Hua  made  a  hurried  visit  to  allay  the  fears 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      139 

of  his  parents,  going  and  returning  the  same  day. 
Vainly  his  mother,  prompted  by  her  fearful,  loving 
heart,  pleaded  with  her  son  not  to  go  back  to  that 
place  of  danger.  Once,  later,  she  devised  a  ruse  to 
entice  him  back  home,  sending  a  messenger  to  tell 
Wei  Hua  that  she  was  very  ill.  The  ruse  failed. 
The  boy  said  to  a  friend,  ''Though  it  is  so  dangerous 
here,  I  can  not  think  of  leaving.  How  these  teachers 
have  loved  us !  Can  I  leave  them  now  in  their  extrem- 
ity ?  This  is  our  opportunity  for  showing  them  that 
they  have  not  loved  us  in  vain." 

In  his  love,  Wei  Hua  went  with  the  missionaries 
to  the  very  gate  of  death.  In  those  last  moments,  Miss 
Bird  gave  him  a  little  money  and  urged  him  to  escape. 
Still  his  heart  was  in  that  little  court  where  his  teach- 
ers waited  for  the  gate  into  the  Homeland  to  swing 
open,  and  his  feet  only  carried  him  into  a  neighbor- 
ing court,  outside  the  mission  compound.  There  he 
climbed  up  on  a  great  beam  in  the  temple  ceiling, 
and  lay  down  flat.  Perhaps  he  might  at  least  learn  the 
fate  of  his  friends,  if  he  lingered  near  and  was  not  dis- 
covered. But  some  one  saw  him,  and  ran  to  tell  the 
Boxers.  A  soldier  stepped  into  the  temple  with  his 
rifle,  and  slowly  aiming  at  the  boy,  brought  him  crash- 
ing, wounded,  to  the  floor.  The  Boxers  gathered 
around.  "Where  do  you  live?"  "At  Chi  Wang." 
"Are  you  a  Christian  ?"  "Yes."  A  dozen  swords  hacked 
the  wounded  body,  and  Wei  Hua  followed  the  teach- 
ers whom  he  loved  through  the  gates  which  had  just 
swung  open  for  them. 

UN  CHEN 

Another  of  those  who  consecrated  that  mission  com- 
pound with  their  blood  was  a  man  named  Lin  Chen. 
He  had  been  a  well-to-do  merchant  before  his  con- 


I40      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

version;  but  such  was  his  strong  desire  to  know  more 
of  Christ  that  afterward  he  committed  his  business 
to  other  hands,  and  took  up  his  abode  at  the  mission, 
that  he  might  attend  all  of  the  meetings  and  classes. 
He  was  self-supporting,  and  a  most  eager  student  of 
the  Bible  and  all  Christian  books.  So  earnest  was  he 
in  preaching  in  his  shop  and  other  places  that  his 
friends  called  him  crazy.  When  he  had  grown  in 
knowledge  and  in  grace,  he  was  sent  to  have  charge 
of  the  outstation  of  Ch'ing  Yuan,  twenty  miles  away. 
There  he  was  most  successful  in  his  work.  His  father, 
an  opium-smoker,  was  brought  to  Christ  through  his 
efforts,  and  two  grandsons  were  sent  to  the  mission 
school.  He  came  to  Tai  Ku  early  in  the  summer  for 
his  usual  vacation.  Soon  the  missionaries  whom  he 
loved  were  in  danger,  and  he  would  not  leave  them, 
though  he  had  a  home  in  the  mountains  where  he 
would  have  been  in  comparative  safety.  During  the 
last  weeks,  when  all  in  that  compound  were  brought 
into  heart-to-heart  communion  by  the  ever-brooding 
sense  of  danger,  he  said  to  a  comrade : 

"Our  enemies  can  kill  the  body,  but  they  can  not 
kill  the  soul.  Why  should  we  fear  them?  Why  have 
we  followed  Jesus?  Was  it  not  to  bear  the  cross  and 
suffer  with  him  ?  Then  see  these  missionaries ;  they 
have  loved  ones  across  the  sea,  whom  they  left  for  our 
sakes,  and  now  they  are  suffering  because  they  came 
to  save  us.  They  trust  in  God,  and  are  not  afraid. 
And  I  am  not  afraid." 

Lin  Chen  was  often  with  his  Lord  in  prayer  those 
days,  and  if  there  were  any  fearful,  troubled  ones, 
he  comforted  them  with  the  comfort  wherewith  he  was 
comforted  of  God.  He  often  urged  others  to  leave, 
saying,  "There  is  no  need  that  so  many  lives  be  sac- 
rificed."    To  a  bright  young  man  who  had  nearly 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      141 

finished  his  preparation  for  his  Hfc  work  he  said:  "I 
think  that,  now  that  death  is  inevitable  here,  you 
ought  to  go  away.  Some  should  be  left  to  work  for 
the  Master  here.    If  we  all  die,  who  will  it  be?" 

We  do  not  know  the  story  of  Lin  Chen's  last  mo- 
ments on  earth,  but  the  angels  have  written  it  in 
heaven. 

Here  we  close  our  narrative  of  loyal  allegiance. 
But  the  most  touching  one  of  all  will  be  found  in  the 
story  of  K'ung  Hsiang  Hsi,  in  the  chapter  on  Shansi, 
recorded  in  that  place  because  it  is  important  as  the 
framework  of  the  story.  If  any  one  is  embittered 
toward  China's  people  because  of  their  indescribable 
cruelty  during  that  summer  of  horror,  let  him  read 
Mr.  K'ung's  pathetic  story,  and  know  that  the  Chinese 
heart  can  be  tender  and  loving. 

Scores  of  these  loyal  ones  have  already  heard  the 
Master's  ''Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father."  Scores 
of  others  will  hear  it  when  they  meet  again  those  for 
whom  they  would  gladly  have  sacrificed  their  lives. 

**For  I  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me  to  eat ;  I  was 
thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger,  and 
ye  took  me  in  ;  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me ;  I  was  sick, 
and  ye  visited  me;  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto 
me.  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these  my 
brethren,  even  these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CHINA'S  ELEVENTH  CHAPTER  OF 
HEBREWS. 

**  These  all  died  in  faith  ;  .  .  .  choosing  rather  to  share 
ill  treatment  with  the  people  of  God  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures 
of  sin  for  a  season ;  accounting  the  reproach  of  Christ  greater 
riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt ;  .  .  .  endured  as  seeing 
him  who  is  invisible." 

The  story  of  that  awful  summer  of  1900  in  China 
is  written  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews.  We 
may  read  the  wonderful  martyr  chapter;  not  with 
the  mists  of  centuries  half  veiling  its  pictures;  not 
with  visions  of  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  rising  be- 
fore us ;  not  with  memories  of  the  martyr  saints  of 
Nero's  time  thrilling  our  hearts, — but  in  the  full  light 
of  the  last  year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  thanking  God 
that  to  our  Chinese  brothers  and  sisters  were  given  the 
same  sublime  heroism,  the  same  triumphant  faith, 
which,  all  through  the  ages,  have  crowned  the  Church. 

WHO  THROUGH  FAITH      .      .      .      STOPPED  THE  MOUTHS 

OF  UONS 

Mrs.  Chang  had  been  a  bright  pupil  in  the  London 
Mission  boarding-school  in  Peking,  and  at  the  time 
the  trouble  began  her  husband  was  preaching  in  the 
London  Mission  in  the  west  city.  His  old  blind  mother 
lived  with  them,  and  a  baby  girl  had  come  to  bless 
the  home.  Mr.  Chang  found  a  temporary  hiding- 
place  for  them  when  it  was  no  longer  safe  to  stay  in 

142 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      143 

their  home,  and  he  himself  went  out  into  the  coun- 
try to  find  a  safer  refu^^e  to  which  he  might  take  them. 
Before  he  returned,  Peking  had  become  a  scene  of 
carnage,  and  during  the  night  of  June  13th,  Mrs. 
Chang,  with  her  mother  and  cliild,  was  driven  out  into 
the  street.  When  morning  broke,  as  she  wandered 
on,  her  baby  on  one  arm,  the  bUnd,  feeble  mother  cHng- 
ing  to  the  other,  a  Boxer  seized  her  by  the  sleeve, 
saying,  "Follow  me."  Pushed  and  dragged  by  a  hoot- 
ing crowd,  she  lost  sight  of  her  mother.  Soon  the 
Boxer  was  seized  by  one  of  the  strange  fits  to  which 
these  demon-possessed  murderers  were  subject. 
Throwing  himself  on  the  ground  in  a  paroxysm  of 
rage,  he  fumed  and  raved,  then  rising  and  pointing  a 
stiff  finger  at  his  captive,  he  shrieked,  "You  erh  mao- 
tcu,  I  am  going  to  kill  you."  He  took  her  to  one  of 
the  city  gates,  where  savage  troops  of  Tung  Fu  Hsiang 
stood  in  battle  array.  There  a  man  wearing  a  yellow 
cap  was  seated  at  a  table,  for  the  gateway  had  been 
turned  into  a  hall  of  judgment.  Here  the  Boxer  de- 
livered up  his  captive,  saying  that  he  would  return 
to  find  others.  The  place  where  the  young  mother 
stood  was  slippery  with  blood ;  a  pile  of  dead  bodies, 
sadly  mutilated,  lay  beside  her.  She  clasped  her  baby 
to  her  breast  and  looked  into  its  face,  thinking,  "This 
is  one  of  the  places  where  the  Christians  arc  mur- 
dered, and  here  they  are  going  to  kill  me  and  my 
precious  baby.  O  Lord,"  she  prayed,  "give  me  cour- 
age to  witness  bravely  for  thee  until  the  end."  The 
man  wearing  the  yellow  cap  asked : 

"Are  you  a  Christian?" 

"Yes,"  she  replied,  without  faltering. 

"Of  what  Church?" 

"I  am  a  Protestant." 

The  Boxer  chief  then  placed  a  stick  of  incense  in 


144      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

her  hand,  saying,  "Burn  this,  and  your  Hfe  will  be 
spared." 

"Never!"  she  replied,  firmly. 

The  crowd  surrounding  her  began  to  jeer  and 
laugh,  saying,  "Kill  her,  kill  her,  and  we  shall  see 
her  body  rise  again  and  go  to  this  Jesus  who  she  says 
can  save  her." 

Turning  to  the  crowd,  she  said :  "My  body,  cut  in 
pieces,  will  remain  scattered  on  the  ground,  like  these," 
pointing  to  the  remains  near  her,  "but  my  soul  will 
escape  you,  and  go  to  be  with  Jesus." 

"How  bold  these  Christians  are !"  murmured  a  sol- 
dier ;  "they  are  not  a  bit  afraid  to  die." 

The  Boxer  then  started  to  get  his  knife,  and  a  sol- 
dier called  out  to  Mrs.  Chang,  "You  hateful  thing, 
you  deserve  to  die ;  but  it  is  a  shame  that  the  baby 
should  be  killed ;  and  if  you  die  who  will  care  for  it  ? 
Quick !  run  for  your  life !"  A  way  was  opened  for  her 
between  the  soldiers.  Trembling  so  that  she  could  not 
run,  she  was  pushed  on  by  them;  then  she  heard  cries 
behind  her,  strength  came,  and  she  ran  on,  not  know- 
ing whither.  Gently  reasoning  with  the  mob  which 
followed  her,  she  persuaded  them  to  let  her  go  in  peace. 
All  day  she  wandered  through  the  streets  with  not  a 
cent  of  money  to  buy  food.  She  was  faint  and  ex- 
hausted, and  the  baby  cried  with  thirst,  so  she  stopped 
at  a  well,  begging  for  a  drink  of  water  for  her  child, 
but  was  driven  away.  As  night  came  on  she  found  a 
hiding-place  in  a  filthy  little  hole  which  she  knew  no 
one  else  would  enter,  and  here,  pressed  close  against 
the  wall,  she  crouched  all  night,  trying  to  stifle  the 
baby's  piteous  wails.  Just  before  dawn  she  saw  a  flick- 
ering light  approaching ;  some  one  seemed  to  be  search- 
ing in  every  crack  and  cranny.  Nearer  and  nearer  came 
the  light,  and  she  hardly  dared  to  breathe.    Then — O 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      145 

unspeakable  joy ! — the  dim  light  showed  her  the  face 
of  her  devoted  husband,  who  had  wandered  all  over 
the  city  seeking  her,  heedless  of  his  own  danger.  The 
joy  of  the  reunion  was  clouded  by  the  thought  of  the 
blind  mother,  helpless  and  alone.  Was  she  still  liv- 
ing? Mr.  Chang  succeeded  in  hiring  a  cart  and  finding 
a  refuge  outside  the  city  for  his  wife  and  child ;  then 
every  day  he  went  into  the  city  on  a  fruitless  search 
for  his  mother.  Soon  danger  threatened  them  in  the 
village ;  the  villagers  turned  them  out,  and  they  started 
on  a  journey  of  three  or  four  days  to  Mr.  Chang's 
childhood  home.  No  inns  would  receive  them ;  vil- 
lagers drove  them  from  the  wells.  The  baby  girl  de- 
veloped scarlet  fever,  her  tongue  was  parched  and  dry, 
the  skin  cracked  all  over  her  face.  Then  merciful  death 
came,  and  the  little  body  was  left  by  the  wayside. 

Mr.  Chang's  relatives  redeemed  the  lives  of  the  two 
refugees  by  paying  a  large  sum  of  money  to  the  Box- 
ers. Then  Mr.  Chang  went  back  to  Peking,  haunted 
by  the  thought  of  his  old  mother,  friendless  in  the  midst 
of  dangers.  He  met  death  in  Prince  Chuang's  palace 
with  Liu  Pao  Ch'ing,  whose  story  is  told  in  the  chap- 
ter on  Peking. 

For  six  long  months  Mrs.  Chang  waited  in  her 
country  refuge  for  tidings  of  her  husband.  Then  she 
was  brought  back  to  Peking,  and  knew  that  husband, 
child,  father,  mother,  younger  sister,  and  the  blind  old 
mother-in-law  were  all  numbered  with  the  dead.  She 
alone  had  been  saved.  Not  more  wonderful  was  the 
deliverance  of  Daniel  than  her  escape  at  the  gate  from 
the  savages  who  hated  her,  yet  whose  hands  were  held 
by  an  Unseen  Power. 


10 


146      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 


QUE:NCiiE;D  the;  power  oi^  fire; 

At  no  other  times  during  the  siege  of  Peking  did 
death  seem  so  near  as  when  flames  were  sweeping 
toward  the  buildings  which  formed  the  outer  line  of 
defense.  On  one  side  of  the  devouring  flames  gathered 
thousands  of  Boxers,  sword  in  hand,  crying,  "Kill ! 
kill !"  as  they  waited  for  the  fire  to  open  the  way  to  their 
victims.  On  the  other  side  hundreds  were  fighting 
the  flames,  hundreds  more  were  praying  that  God 
would  stretch  out  his  hand  and  stay  the  flames.  God 
heard  and  answered.  Once  in  the  British  Legation, 
once  in  the  place  where  the  Christians  were  sheltered, 
the  wind  changed  suddenly,  the  power  of  fire  was 
quenched. 

Many  a  Christian,  during  those  months  of  massacre 
in  North  China,  gave  his  body  to  be  burned.  Even 
here  the  power  of  fire  was  quenched  by  the  faith  which 
robbed   the   grave   of   its   victory. 

In  a  station  of  the  China  Inland  Mission  in  Shansi 
lived  Mr.  Jen,  to  whom  a  fellow-believer  had  given  the 
prophetic  name  "Faithful"  (Chin  Chung).  He  and  his 
wife  were  taken  by  the  Boxers,  their  hands  were  bound 
behind  their  backs ;  then  they  were  suspended  by  their 
bound  hands  from  a  beam  in  a  temple,  and  beaten 
with  rods.  Not  satisfied  with  this  torture,  the  Boxers 
kindled  a  slow  fire  under  the  sufferers,  and  not  until 
their  feet  had  been  almost  roasted  were  they  taken 
down.  Then  the  woman  was  set  free,  but  the  man  was 
placed  in  the  midst  of  a  wide  circle  of  fire  to  die  by  slow 
torture.  Maddened  by  the  pain,  he  threw  himself  into 
the  midst  of  the  flames.  Soldiers  who  were  standing 
by,  indignant  at  the  revolting  cruelty,  set  upon  the 
Boxers  and  drove  them  away,  took  the  poor  man  from 
the  smoldering  cinders,  and  finding  him  still  alive,  car- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      147 

ried  him  to  the  yamcn,  where  the  magistrate  thrust  him 
into  a  dark  prison.  So  by  the  hands  of  his  enemies 
he  was  saved  from  death  by  burning. 

Escaped  the;  Edge  of  The  Sword 

THE  STORY  OE  KUNG  TE  TS'aNG 

Kung  Te  Ts'ang  was  for  many  years  a  student  in 
the  American  Presbyterian  Boys'  School  in  Peking, 
and  during  his  course  engaged  actively  in  various  forms 
of  Christian  work.  After  graduation,  contemplating 
a  theological  course,  he  first  undertook  a  year  of  evan- 
gelistic work  in  the  country.  After  the  massacres 
began,  he  fled  with  his  parents  to  a  village  in  the 
mountains.     He  narrates  his  experiences  as  follows:] 

Each  day  I  carried  my  mother  on  my  back  to  the 
top  of  a  mountain,  and  hid  her  under  a  tree  grown  over 
with  grapevines,  thinking  that  the  Lord  would  certainly 
open  a  way  of  escape  for  those  who  trusted  in  him. 
All  day  long  there  was  no  ceasing  of  our  voice  of 
prayer  under  that  tree.  On  June  30th  there  came  men 
to  chase  and  seize  us  in  order  to  kill  us.  Early  the 
next  morning  my  parents  insisted  upon  my  escaping 
alone.    I  asked  them  : 

*'If  I  should  do  so,  would  you  be  able,  no  matter 
what  happened,  to  confess  Jesus?"    They  replied: 

"We  are  able.  If  it  comes  to  that,  although  we 
may  not  see  each  other  again  in  this  world,  at  last,  at 
our  Heavenly  Father's  feet,  we  shall  certainly  dwell 
together  forever." 

Tears  filled  our  eyes  at  these  words.  Then  we 
together  climbed  over  a  mountain  and  to  the  top  of 
another.  The  two  old  people  went  west,  and  I  went 
northeast  alone,  but  with  my  face  turned  to  the  west, 
sad  of  heart  and  weeping  incessantly.     I  prayed,  "O 


148      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Lord,  keep  us  until  we  meet  again."  Having  left  my 
parents  and  crossed  several  ridges,  I  asked  everywhere 
for  work,  but  secured  none,  obtaining  only  a  few  bowls 
of  cooked  millet.  Going  on  northeast,  I  met  a  farmer 
named  Li,  and  arranged  with  him  to  begin  work. 
When  I  laid  down  my  hoe  and  went  to  the  house  to 
retire  for  the  night,  I  suddenly  met  a  number  of  men 
face  to  face.  One  of  them  asked  me,  "Are  you  an  erh 
mao-tzu?"  In  his  hand  he  held  a  long  scythe  ready 
to  strike  me.  I  said,  ''I  am  a  seeker  for  work.  If 
you  do  not  believe  me,  ask  the  farmer  in  yonder 
house."  As  if  he  had  not  heard,  he  kept  saying,  '*I  '11 
knock  you  over  and  take  your  money  and  your  life." 
Among  the  men  were  some  who  said,  ''Let  him  go," 
but  the  one  named  Chang  was  unwilling  to  release  me, 
and  exchanging  his  long  scythe  for  a  large  knife,  kept 
flourishing  it  right  and  left  about  my  head,  all  the 
time  reviling  me  with  his  tongue.  Then  one  said, 
"Kill  him  here,  and  be  done  with  it."  Another  said, 
"Better  yet,  use  that  old  dry  tree  yonder  beyond  the 
grave-mound  and  burn  him  to  death."  Another  said, 
"Drag  him  to  the  magistrate."  When  we  were  half 
way  there,  one  said,  "Let 's  take  a  rope  and  bind  him, 
put  him  in  the  house  and  guard  him  until  morning, 
then  proceed  with  him."  Meanwhile  Chang's  knife  did 
not  leave  my  head.  Some  one  cried :  "The  best  thing 
to  do  is  to  kill  him  instantly,  lest  he  run  away  in  the 
night."  Another  said  to  me,  "You  come  out  to  spread 
poison,  smear  blood  [on  houses]  and  hurt  men,  so  we 
propose  to  hurt  you."  He  went  on  to  speak  of  the 
railroad,  and  how  it  had  killed  countless  people.  Sud- 
denly a  stroke  of  the  knife  on  my  head  felled  me  to  the 
earth.  Some  of  them  dragged  me  to  my  feet,  and 
stuffed  a  piece  of  burning  floss  into  the  wound,  but 
the  blood  continued  to  flow.    All  the  time  I  was  quite 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      149 

at  peace  in  my  heart,  and  had  no  fear,  just  as  if  I  were 
in  the  Lord's  bosom. 

Not  far  from  the  suburb  at  the  Yen  Gate,  one  asked 
me,  "Are  you  an  erh  mao-tzu?"  I  said,  "I  am  not." 
Then  he  asked  the  man  who  was  with  me,  "Are  you 
one?"  He  said,  "I  am  not."  Asked  to  tell  whether  I 
was  one  or  not,  he  said,  "He  is  one.  The  only  thini^ 
I  have  done  is  occasionally  to  sell  the  foreigners  bean 
curd."  They  then  asked  me  if  this  man  was  an  erh 
mao-tzu.  I  said,  "You  will  have  to  ask  him."  Before 
and  behind,  on  the  right,  the  left,  were  knives  and 
spears,  sticks  and  clubs,  like  a  field  of  sorghum ;  before 
and  behind  were  torches  and  lanterns.  Thus  we  came 
to  the  Yen  Gate  suburb,  and  the  magistrate  took  his 
seat  and  said : 

"So  you  are  an  erh  mao-tzu,  are  you?" 

"I  am  not." 

"Tell  me  truly,  then,  of  what  religion  are  you." 

I  said,  "I  am  of  the  Christian  religion." 

As  soon  as  those  below  the  desk  heard  these  words 
they  cried,  "If  that  is  not  an  erh  mao-tzu,  what  is  it?" 

I  said :  "I  beg  your  honor  for  permisson  to  speak 
a  few  words.  The  Jesus  Church  (Protestant)  and  the 
Heavenly  Lord  Church  (Roman  Catholic)  are  far 
from  being  the  same  thing.  This  disturbance  was  orig- 
inated with  the  Roman  Catholics.'  Moreover,  in  Pao 
Ting  Fu  they  only  seize  Roman  Catholics  and  do  not 
molest  the  Protestants.  [True  at  first,  and  so  far  as  this 
young  man  knew.]  The  village  of  Tuan  is  Roman 
Catholic,  as  is  also  Ta  K'ou  T'un.  There  are  no  Prot- 
estant Churches  in  this  prefecture.  The  central  thought 
of  the  doctrine  which  our  Church  preaches  is  to  en- 
able men  to  escape  sorrow  and  obtain  happiness,  and 
it  does  not  consist  in  the  following  of  any  one.  I  am 
also  one  who  has  studied  books.    If  you  do  not  be- 


I50      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

lieve,  pray  examine  my  hands,  and  you  will  see  that 
I  have  not  been  accustomed  to  doing  rough  work." 

The  magistrate  had  us  bound  hand  and  foot,  and 
locked  up,  appointing  a  guard,  and  declaring  that  the 
next  day  he  would  burn  us  to  death.  At  this  juncture 
my  companion  began  repeating  the  name  of  Buddha, 
and  they  said : 

"This  man  can  not  be  one  of  them,  but  that  man 
is  an  erh  mao-tzu  because  his  eyes  are  constantly  look- 
ing toward  the  heavens,  and  his  mouth  is  speaking 
of  heaven." 

My  companion  said,  "Give  me  some  incense  to  burn, 
or  some  paper  to  offer." 

I  sought  opportunity  and  said  to  him:  "If  you 
do  so,  not  only  can  you  not  preserve  your  body,  but 
you  will  find  it  difficult  to  save  your  soul  from  de- 
struction." 

The  next  day,  the  people  being  many,  their  mind 
changed,  and  they  proposed  to  take  us  to  the  district 
city,  Chi  Chou,  and  turn  us  over  to  the  district  mag- 
istrate to  be  killed.  When  I  heard  this,  I  was  still 
more  troubled,  and  said,  "Better  kill  us  outside  the 
gate,  and  save  those  forty  miles  of  travel."  Though  I 
did  not  pray  audibly,  yet  in  my  heart  I  felt  very  near 
to  the  Lord.  We  had  gone  only  part  way  when  they 
said: 

"Give  us  your  money  and  your  clothing  and  we 
will  release  you  and  let  you  escape  for  your  life." 

I  said,  "If  we  do  so,  please  leave  me  have  a  little 
road  money,  lest  I  starve  to  death." 

So  they  untied  the  ropes  which  bound  me,  and  we 
sat  down  and  talked.  I  bought  some  cakes,  and  ate 
as  we  talked.  I  told  them  how  I  had  studied  in  Peking, 
how  in  the  hospital  they  cured  diseases  and  dispensed 
medicine.    All  these  things  were  to  save  men.    While 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      151 

we  v/ere  talking  it  grew  late,  so  we  lay  down  together 
and  slept. 

Early  the  next  morning  one  of  the  company  led 
me  by  a  roundabout  way  among  the  mountains  back 
to  the  place  where  I  had  met  with  the  trouble,  the  home 
of  the  Mr.  Li,  for  whom  I  had  agreed  to  work  as  a 
farmer.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  fourth  of  July  came 
an  officer  from  the  Yen  Gate  guard-house.  As  soon 
as  he  saw  me,  he  said,  "You  are  keeping  an  erh  mao- 
tzu  here,  whom  I  wish  to  bind."  Then  he  narrated 
what  had  taken  place  at  the  Yen  Gate  guard-house. 
All  day  long  I  fled,  and  finally  secured  a  night's  rest. 
In  the  morning,  keeping  to  the  sides  of  grave-mounds, 
I  fled  northward,  and  the  next  day  I  crossed  over  a 
stretch  of  the  Great  Wall.  The  following  day  I  re- 
crossed  the  wall.  On  the  road  which  skirted  along 
it,  I  met  men,  who  said:  "At  every  gate  in  the 
wall  there  are  Boxers  on  guard.  You  can't  get  past." 
I  said,  "God  will  surely  open  a  way  of  escape  for  one 
who  has  faith  in  him.  If  the  Lord  had  not  led,  how 
could  I  have  lived  until  this  time?"  Then  I  fled  out- 
side the  wall,  and  on  the  12th  of  July  I  came  to  the 
village  of  Ta  Ya  Tai. 

Although  there  were  no  Boxers  there,  yet  it  was 
a  year  of  dearth.  Most  fortunately  there  was  a  man 
named  Wang  there,  of  whom  I  had  often  heard.  He 
was  from  T'ungchou.  I  asked  him  for  work,  whether 
hoeing  or  pulling  vegetables.  According  to  the  custom 
of  the  land,  if  a  workman  stops  to  rest,  he  is  given  only 
his  food  and  no  wages.  Though  I  had  no  calendar 
with  me,  I  remembered  that  the  loth  day  of  June 
had  been  the  Sabbath.  So  week  by  week  as  the  Sab- 
baths came  around,  I  had  climbed  a  mountain,  or  gone 
into  a  field  among  tall  hemp,  and  knelt  in  prayer. 

A  few  days  after  I  had  begun  to  work  for  Mr. 


152      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Wang,  there  came  men  from  the  Lama  temple,  order- 
ing all,  family  by  family,  to  burn  incense  toward  the 
southeast,  kotow,  and  scatter  cold  water.  My  employer 
said,  "After  we  have  finished  eating,  if  any  one  does 
not  go  and  do  this,  he  is  an  erh  mao-tzu."  I  hurried 
through  my  meal  and  threw  myself  on  the  brick  bed, 
pretending  to  sleep.  They  shouted  to  me  several  times ; 
but  r  made  no  answer,  so  they  paid  no  further  attention 
to  me.  The  next  day  at  evening,  I  finished  eating  first, 
went  out  and  kept  out  of  sight.  The  third  day,  I  said 
to  the  shepherd  Chao,  "The  bedbugs  over  here  bite  me 
ferociously ;  let  m.e  sleep  with  you  in  the  house  where 
you  watch  the  sheep."  So  every  night  when  I  had 
eaten,  I  went  there  to  sleep.  After  some  days  I  told  the 
two  shepherds  the  truth,  as  we  had  become  good 
friends. 

As  this  region  is  very  cold,  we  had  frost  in  August. 
I  had  no  shoes,  yet  I  must  go  out  to  work  while  the 
stars  were  still  shining,  to  cut  oats  and  buckwheat. 
My  eyes  were  often  full  of  tears,  and,  closing  them, 
I  prayed  silently.  Though  I  had  heard  it  said  that 
all  the  foreigners  in  Peking  had  been  killed,  and  the 
imperial  troops  had  fought  victoriously,  yet  I  kept 
thinking,  "It  can  not  be  that  the  Lord  has  permitted 
all  those  in  Peking  who  believed  in  him  to  perish." 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  this  was  my  thought. 
When  any  travelers  came  from  the  South,  I  eagerly 
went  to  inquire  of  them.  They  all  said,  "The  foreign- 
ers and  their  followers  are  utterly  exterminated."  Be- 
cause the  place  was  over  three  hundred  miles  from 
Peking  it  was  the  6th  of  October  before  I  heard  of  the 
relief  of  Peking.  I  gave  thanks  to  the  Lord,  saying, 
"My  days  of  tribulation  are  over." 

As  soon  as  I  could  get  my  pay  from  my  employer 
I  started  toward  Peking.     October  24th,  when  seven 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      153 

miles  from  the  city,  I  met  three  men  with  sharp  spears, 
who  knocked  me  down,  kept  my  leather  boots,  and  let 
me  go.  When  I  had  entered  tlie  city,  I  went  first  to 
Second  Street  (the  location  of  the  Presbyterian  mis- 
sion). When  I  saw  the  desolation  I  was  overwhelmed 
with  sorrow.  On  inquiring,  I  learned  that  the  mission- 
aries were  living  west  of  the  Chi'en  Gate,  in  Mill 
Street,  where  I  arrived  in  the  evening,  and  greeted  my 
old  friends.  David  said,  "Yea,  thou  I  walk  through 
the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil, 
for  Thou  art  with  me."  I  have  received  God's  un- 
paralleled mercies,  have  been  at  peace  in  my  heart, 
and  have  believed  that  God  would  protect  his  children 
at  Peking  from  utter  destruction.  His  greatest  good- 
ness is  in  keeping  me,  in  the  hour  of  pain  and  peril, 
from  denying  him  by  kotowing,  burning  incense,  or 
sacrificing. 

Even  more  wonderful  was  the  escape  of  an  old 
bookseller  in  Manchuria  belonging  to  the  United  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  He  was  brought  to  a  temple 
where  many  Roman  Catholics  had  been  killed  and 
where  there  stood  two  hundred  Boxers,  their  swords 
covered  with  blood.  He  was  forced  to  kneel,  then  was 
asked,  ''Do  you  follow  the  foreigners?"  "No,"  he  said, 
"but  I  follow  Jesus."  "Will  you  worship  Buddha 
now?"  was  the  next  question.  "I  will  worship  the 
true  Buddha ;  I  believe  in  one  true  God,"  was  his 
answer. 

The  sword  was  placed  on  his  neck,  and  he  thought 
that  it  was  his  last  moment  on  earth ;  but  for  some 
reason  his  life  was  spared.  Scourging  and  insult 
still  awaited  him ;  but  he  was  finally  liberated,  and 
still  lives,  full  of  praises  to  God  for  his  deliverance. 


154      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 


FROM  WEAKNESS  WERE  MADE  STRONG 

Mrs.  Keng,  of  the  American  Board  Mission  at 
T'ungchou,  was  a  timid,  shrinking  woman  who  had 
become  a  Christian  after  her  marriage  to  a  worthless 
man  who  cared  nothing  for  good  things.  She  had  few 
advantages;  she  could  only  read  simple  Bible  verses, 
and  she  was  so  quiet  that  we  never  knew  how  brave  a 
soul  dwelt  in  that  timid  body  until  the  time  of  her 
great  trial  came. 

The  Kengs  lived  in  a  little  room  in  the  yard  be- 
longing to  one  of  the  mission  day-schools;  but  when 
the  massacres  began  they  moved  secretly  to  a  place 
in  the  city  where  they  hoped  to  remain  unknown. 
Soon  after  they  had  taken  refuge  there,  one  dark  even- 
ing after  Mr.  Keng  had  gone  out  on  his  beat  as  night 
watchman,  the  cry,  ''Kill !  kill !"  was  heard  at  the 
gate.  Mrs.  Keng's  little  daughter,  Anna,  sat  in  an 
inner  room;  her  little  nephew,  whose  father  had  been 
tortured  to  death  a  few  hours  before,  braced  his  hands 
against  the  door,  and  when  it  was  burst  open  he  still 
stood  behind  it.  Boxers  carrying  lanterns  entered,  and 
a  crowd  gathered  outside.  Mrs.  Keng  stood  facing 
them,  calm  and  fearless.  Rude  hands  dragged  her 
towards  the  door.  *'You  need  not  drag  me,"  she  said ; 
"I  will  go  wherever  you  want  me  to  go."  So  she 
walked  with  them  half  a  mile  through  the  streets  of  the 
city,  the  lanterns  carried  by  her  captors  lighting  up 
a  face  which  wore  a  smile  of  triumphant  joy.  They 
halted  at  the  temple  of  the  god  of  war,  not  far  from 
the  ruins  of  the  city  mission.  There  Mrs.  Keng  was 
commanded  to  go  in  and  burn  incense.  *'I  can't  burn 
incense,"  she  said,  "if  you  kill  me  for  refusing,  I  '11 
not  burn  incense."  As  she  repeatedly  refused  to  enter 
the  temple,  the  Boxers  consulted  together  and  decided 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      155 

to  take  her  to  their  headquarters  in  another  temple. 
"There  is  no  use  in  your  taking  me  anywhere  else ; 
I  shall  not  worship  any  of  your  gods.  If  you  want  to 
kill  me,  kill  me  here." 

They  took  her  at  her  word,  and  the  poor  body  soon 
lay  in  shapeless  fragments  in  front  of  the  temple, 
but  the  brave  soul  was  with  Him  whose  strength  had 
been  made  perfect  in  her  weakness. 

WAXED    MIGHTY    IN    WAR,    TURNED    TO    FUGHT   ARMIES 

OF  ALIENS 

It  was  during  the  siege  of  Peking.  On  the  1st  of 
July  a  sad  company  filed  back  from  the  city  wall  into 
the  legations.  In  the  company  were  two  North  China 
College  boys,  bearing  between  them  a  member  of  the 
Congregational  Church  in  Peking,  who  had  been  shot 
through  the  foot.  Four  other  Christians  had  just  been 
killed,  they  said,  and  still  another  wounded.  Let  one 
of  the  boys  tell  his  own  story : 

''This  morning  a  hot  shower  of  shell  drove  the 
German  marines  down  from  the  position  which  they 
were  holding  on  the  city  wall  east  of  the  Americans, 
and  soon  the  Americans  followed  them  down,  Colt  gun 
and  all.  The  Chinese  immediately  took  possession  of 
the  abandoned  German  barricade,  but  from  fear  of 
mines,  or  for  some  other  mysterious  reason,  the  Ameri- 
can position  remained  deserted.  When  the  call  came 
for  sixty  or  seventy  of  us  to  go  to  the  American  Lega- 
tion we  did  not  know  what  work  awaited  us.  Soon 
we  had  several  hundred  sandbags  filled,  then  the  order 
came  to  shoulder  them  and  start  for  the  city  wall. 
Barricades  had  just  been  finished  between  the  American 
Legation  and  the  city  wall,  so  that  one  could  reach 
the  foot  of  the  ramp  in  comparative  safety.  But  in 
ascending  that  ramp    (then  without  barricades),  we 


156      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

were  exposed  to  a  fire  at  close  range  from  the  old 
German  barricade.  But  up  went  American  and  British 
marines,  and  we  followed  them,  each  bearing  a  sand- 
bag. Once  at  the  top  we  dropped  our  bags  for  the 
marines  to  build  into  the  new  eastern  barricade^,  on 
which  side  they  were  now  absolutely  unprotected.  Up 
and  down  we  filed,  the  enemy  seeming  to  take  no  notice 
of  the  move.  Then  came  a  rifle  volley  from  the  aban- 
doned German  barricade,  and  half  way  up  the  ramp  a 
Catholic  fell  dead  with  his  sandbag.  The  files  of  men 
below  saw  it,  and  shrank  back  for  a  moment.  'Come, 
boys/  I  said  to  several  of  my  college  mates  near,  'those 
American  soldiers  up  there  are  fighting  to  protect  us; 
we  must  finish  that  barricade  to  protect  them.'  So  up  we 
went  twice  more  under  the  galling  fire,  until  the  last 
one  of  the  sandbags  was  landed  at  the  top.  Some  were 
taken  from  the  side  of  comrades  who  had  fallen  on  the 
ramp,  and  on  the  last  trip  down  we  carried  another 
burden,  our  wounded  friend." 

WOMEN  RECEIVED  THEIR  DEAD  BY  A  RESURRECTION 

How  often  those  who  for  months  had  been  sepa- 
rated from  father,  mother,  wife,  husband,  child,  who 
had  thought  of  their  loved  ones  as  slain,  quieted  one 
another  with  the  words,  "Dead,  and  alive  again !"  The 
following  narrative  is  of  such  a  "resurrection." 

KUO  MING^  OE  CHO  CHOU 

[Cho  Chou  is  a  large  city  on  the  railroad  between 
Peking  and  Pao  Ting  Fu,  and  is  an  important  station 
of  the  American  Board.] 

Late  in  May  I  saw  over  twenty  thousand  Boxers 
destroying  the  railroad  and  cars,  and  went  at  once 
to  Peking  with  the  news,  then  returned  home.  After 
destroying  the  railroad,  the  Boxers  came  to  Cho  Chou. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OI^  MARTYRS      157 

A  Boxer  named  Ho,  who  knew  that  I  was  a  man  of 
good  character,  sent  word  to  me  to  fly  at  once.  I  fled 
the  same  day,  leaving-  my  wife  with  my  father  and 
mother,  who  were  not  Christians.  Passing  Ma  T'ou, 
I  met  a  man  named  Miao  Ch'ang  Ch'ing,  who  was  a 
leader  in  his  village.  He  knew  that  I  would  pass 
through  South  Ts'ai  Ts'un  on  my  way  to  Tientsin,  so 
he  gathered  over  three  hundred  Boxers  in  a  grove 
north  of  that  village,  and  his  son,  Miao  Chang  Che'ng 
went  into  the  house  of  Ch'en  Mao.  When  I  saw  this 
Miao  I  was  afraid,  and  Ch'en  Mao  said  to  me,  "You 
often  come  to  my  home,  but  never  have  acted  fearful 
like  this?  Why  is  it?  Do  n't  be  afraid.  The  Boxers  will 
have  regard  for  me,  and  will  not  harm  you." 

At  this  time  Miao  left  the  house,  and  in  half  an 
hour  the  Boxers  approached  from  four  sides  and  sur- 
rounded the  yard,  then  came  inside,  asking,  "Is  Kuo 
Ming  here?"  I  saw  a  forest  of  spears  and  swords. 
Even  if  I  had  wings,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  escape. 
Some  Boxers  entered  the  house  and  shut  the  doors. 
A  man  named  Lu  San  Kou,  a  second-rank  leader,  held 
a  long  spear  in  his  hand  and  thrust  it  through  the 
window,  inflicting  several  wounds.  A  leader  of  the  first 
rank,  Pao  Tu  Kuci,  broke  down  the  door,  shivering 
his  spear  in  the  act,  then  gave  me  a  severe  thrust  with 
the  splintered  spear  handle.  They  then  dragged  me 
into  the  yard,  giving  nie  several  cuts.  Some  one  said, 
"Don't  kill  him  in  the  court  and  bring  pollution  on 
the  house,"  so  they  dragged  me  outside  the  village. 
All  hope  of  life  left  me,  and  I  thought  of  my  children 
whom  I  should  never  see  again.  Suddenly  the  death 
of  Stephen  came  into  my  mind,  and  his  prayer,  and  I 
cried  with  a  loud  voice,  "Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to 
their  charge."  The  Boxers  exclaimed,  "He  is  a  living 
rebel,  and  there  is  no  repentance  in  his  heart  for  his 


158      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

rebellion.  He  is  still  quoting  his  sacred  book."  So 
their  hatred  was  increased,  and  they  dragged  me  on, 
placing  a  knife  on  my  neck.  My  whole  body  seemed 
paralyzed.  As  in  a  dream  I  heard  the  words,  "Do  n't 
kill  him ;  take  him  to  the  altar  to  offer  as  a  sacrifice." 
The  crowd  dragged  me  to  North  Ts'ai  Ts'un,  to  the 
north  altar  of  the  village.  A  few  feet  from  the  altar 
was  a  post  about  six  feet  high.  Fastening  my  queue  to 
the  top  of  this  they  bound  my  arms  backward  around  the 
post,  making  me  take  a  kneeling  posture  with  my 
breast  outward.  My  abdomen  was  all  swollen  from  the 
wounds  which  I  had  received ;  my  mouth  was  parched 
with  thirst;  a  dry,  hot  wind  was  blowing.  They 
wanted  to  cut  my  breast  open  and  offer  my  life  as 
a  sacrifice.  I  prayed  that  some  one  might  come  and 
plead  for  me.  Four  men  entered  the  court  just  as  the 
Boxers  called  out,  "There  is  the  breath  of  a  stranger 
here,  let  us  all  take  up  our  weapons."  One  of  the  four 
men  said :  "What  do  you  mean  by  'the  breath  of  a 
stranger?'  He  is  an  erh  mao-tzii;  are  we  also  erh  mao- 
tzu?  Has  your  doctrine  to  do  with  men  or  gods?  If 
with  men,  we  also  can  learn  your  altar  rites ;  if  with 
gods,  and  the  gods  do  not  descend,  we  can  do  nothing. 
You  can  burn  your  paper  charms  and  see  whether  he 
should  live  or  die." 

So  before  the  p-od  Ypno-  T^^^  ^be  Boxers  burned 
fVirpp  piVpps  of  paper^  ^nd  the  burned  p^pf^  ''^^^^  not  rise. 
Then  they  burned  a  piece  before  the  god  Hung  Chun, 
and  the  paper  rose.  All  the  Boxers,  when  they  saw 
the  ashes  rise,  laid  down  their  weapons,  took  the  red 
scarfs  from  their  heads  and  placed  them  on  benches. 
They  were  not  to  kill  me.  I  asked  for  water,  and  they 
gave  me  some.  Then  the  four  men  unbound  me.  I 
was  too  weak  to  walk,  so  they  hired  a  man  to  carry 
me  in  a  basket  back  to  the  house  of  Ch'en  Mao. 


CHINA'vS  BOOK   oF  MARTYRS       159 

I  sent  a  man  to  Clio  Chou  to  tell  my  wife  all  this. 
When  she  heard  it,  she  fainted,  and  did  not  revive 
for  a  long  time.  ]\Iy  father  said  to  her  contemptu- 
ously. "You  need  not  act  like  a  cat  weeping  over  a 
mouse  in  your  feigned  pity.  If  you  had  not  studied  in 
the  mission  schools,  my  son  would  never  have  come 
to  this."  My  wife  knelt  before  him,  begging  for  pity, 
but  he  only  reviled  her.  Then  my  wife  started  to  go 
to  me,  wanting  to  comfort  me,  and  die  with  me,  but 
she  got  only  as  far  as  the  east  gate  of  the  city,  then 
was  dragged  back  home. 

A  great  many  of  my  friends  united  and  made  a  con- 
Uihution  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  sirmgs  oi  cash  lo 
redeem  niv  life  from  the  Boxers^  But  the  man  named 
IMiao  had  a  poison  heart  of  hatred.  The  people  of 
the  village,  knowing  that  I  was  an  honest,  faithful 
man,  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  my  being  cruelly 
put  to  death,  so  they  told  me  of  Miao's  determination 
to  kill  me,  and  I  escaped  by  night  to  the  Methodist 
Mission  in  Peking.  I  passed  safely  through  the  siege ; 
then,  as  soon  as  possible,  returned  to  my  wife  in  Cho 
Chou. 

AND    OTHERS    WERE    TORTURED,    NOT    ACCEPTING   THEIR 

DELIVERANCE,  THAT  THEY  MIGHT  OBTAIN  A 

BETTER   RESURRECTION 

Mr.  Li  was  a  young  preacher  in  the  mission  in 
Manchuria  supported  by  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland 
and  Ireland.  Dr.  Ross,  of  Mo'kden  writes  of  his 
seizure  by  the  Boxers,  and  how  he  endured  to  the  end : 

"The  brutes  were  eager  for  his  recantation, — per- 
haps unwilling  to  take  his  life.  On  the  execution- 
ground  he  was  bound  as  men  are  bound  who  are  to  be 
beheaded.  He  was  then  asked,  'Will  you  preach  the 
Jesus  religion?'     'As  long  as  I  live/  was  the  reply. 


i6o      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

Then  an  eyebrow  was  cut  off  with  the  sword,  and 
the  same  question  was  repeated ;  and  so  was  his  answer. 
Then  another  eyebrow  was  cut  off,  an  ear,  then  the 
other  ear.  Then  his  Hps  were  cut  off;  and  still,  after 
each  cut,  he  was  questioned,  and  still  answered  that 
while  he  lived  he  could  not  but  preach  the  way  of  sal- 
vation to  sinners.  When  he  felt  that  he  was  getting 
weak,  he  said,  '1  may  be  unable  to  speak,  but  I  shall 
never  cease  to  believe.'  Then  with  a  terrific  crosscut 
his  heart  was  cut  out  and  taken  away.  He  sat  on  the 
ground,  and  remained  as  if  sitting  naturally.  His  heart 
was  exhibited  at  a  theatrical  performance  for  several 
days.  The  Boxers  themselves  are  now  loud  in  praise 
of  the  man  who  was  so  unnaturally  brave  and  true 
to  his  beliefs." 

Dr.  Ross  writes  also :  "Mr.  Li's  only  child,  a  bright 
girl  of  fourteen  years  of  age,  fled  after  her  father's 
death,  taking  with  her  a  New  Testament.  Some  rela- 
tives wished  to  save  her,  but  she  must  burn  her  book. 
She  refused.  She  ran  with  the  book  under  her  arm 
into  the  millet.  She  was  not  known  by  any  of  the 
Boxers.  She  was  discovered  in  the  millet.  Her  book 
was  testimony,  and  the  only  testimony,  against  her. 
She  was  brought  to  the  place  of  execution  and  asked 
if  she  were  a  believer.  She  replied  that  she  was.  The 
child  fearlessly  stood  before  the  tormentors,  who  asked 
her  if  she  was  not  afraid.  'Afraid  or  not  afraid,  it  is  all 
one,'  she  replied.  But  with  a  smile  she  met  the  sword 
which  cut  her  down." 

Dr.  Peill,  of  the  London  Mission,  has  recorded  how 
one  Christian  was  tortured,  not  accepting  deliverance : 

"Our  courier,  a  fine  little  man,  called  Fan,  who  has 
carried  our  letters  between  Yen  Shan,  Ts'ang  Chow, 
and  Tientsin  for  a  long  time  back,  and  who  was  the 
soul  of  thoroughness,  loyalty,  and  honesty,  was  one 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      i6i 

of  the  heroes.  He  was  remarkable  for  his  freedom 
from  the  national  characteristic  of  money-loving,  and 
has  often  refused  extra  pay  and  "tips"  on  the  score 
that  he  had  done  nothing  to  deserve  them,  and  did  not 
need  them, — in  liis  case  a  final  refusal,  and  not  merely 
politeness.  He  was  caught,  and  placed  in  a  deep  hole, 
dug  tor  the  purpose,  standing  upright,  but  with  his 
head  below  the  level  of  the  surrounding  field.  Earth 
was  filled  in  up  to  his  knees,  and  he  was  asked  to  recant, 
but  refused ;  then  to  his  hips,  but  he  still  refused ; 
then  to  his  chin,  and  a  last  offer  made  of  life  and 
liberty  if  he  would  deny  his  Master.  The  brave  fellow 
again  refused,  and  was  thereupon  buried  alive." 

AND  OTHERS  HAD  TRIAL  OF  MOCKINGS 

Dn  Edwards  writes:  "Tsai  Ching  Yang  was  an 
object  of  special  hatred  by  the  Boxers,  and  suffered 
severely  in  consequence.  He  was  a  house-painter  by 
trade,  and  also  at  times  painted  idols.  While  a  patient 
in  the  hospital  at  Tai  Yuan  Fu  he  was  converted,  and 
then  gave  up  that  part  of  his  trade.  On  returning  to 
his  home  he  used  part  of  his  house  as  a  village  chapel, 
and  was  quite  fearless  in  preaching,  venturing  even 
into  the  temples  or  wherever  he  could  get  an  audience. 
When  caught  by  the  Boxers,  he  was  at  first  beaten  and 
wounded,  then  bound  and  taken  before  the  tribunal  at 
Shou  Yang.  While  lying  there  bound  and  bruised,  he 
was  ridiculed  by  the  bystanders.  Some  asked,  'Does 
it  hurt,  teacher?'  After  a  so-called  trial  he  was  con- 
demned to  death,  and  beheaded  outside  the  city,  his 
head  being  hung  on  a  neighboring  tree." 

Mr.  Kao,  a  member  of  the  English  Baptist  Church 

in  the  Hsin  Chou  region,  Shansi,  was  caught  on  the 

street,  beaten  until  nearly  dead,  and  then  thrown  on 

the  smoldering  ruins  of  the  chapel.    He  was  still  con- 

II 


i62      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

scious,  and  after  a  time  begged  the  bystanders  to  give 
him  some  water.  "Do  you  want  it  hot  or  cold?"  asked 
one  man,  "See,  I  will  give  you  some  lukewarm,"  he  con- 
tinued; then  he  offered  him  wine  to  drink,  saying, 
"Others  would  not  even  give  you  that."  The  tor- 
tured man  lingered  on  until  the  next  day,  not  one  of 
the  scoffing  crowd  taking  pity  on  him. 

AND  SCOURGINGS 

In  the  Pin  Chou  District,  in  Shantung,  Mr,  Sun, 
of  the  English  Baptist  Mission,  with  his  two  sons, 
escaped  from  the  Boxers,  and  took  refuge  in  an  inn 
in  the  city,  which  belonged  to  a  Church  member. 
Soon  the  Boxers  captured  father  and  sons,  and,  bind- 
ing them,  sent  them  to  the  yamen  of  the  magistrate 
to  be  examined.  When  questioned,  Mr.  Sun  said,  "I 
study  the  doctrine,  worship  God,  and  obey  the  laws  of 
the  empire,  why  should  I  be  killed?"  To  please  the 
Boxers,  the  magistrate  had  Mr.  Sun  beaten  three  hun- 
dred heavy  strokes,  and  shut  up  with  his  sons  in  a 
dungeon.  The  next  day  the  Boxers  took  the  three 
from  the  dungeon,  and  dragged  them  outside  the  city. 
When  the  swords  were  lifted  to  hack  them  to  pieces, 
Mr.  Sun  knelt  down  and  prayed,  saying,  "Heavenly 
Father,  receive  my  spirit." 

Li  Shu  Chih,  of  the  English  Methodist  Mission,  in 
Yung  Ping  Fu,  Chihli,  was  captured  by  Boxers,  bound, 
and  carried  to  the  chapel  in  the  city.  He  had  a  mock 
trial,  but  steadfastly  refused  to  recant.  He  was  then 
severely  beaten  five  hundred  stripes,  and  committed 
to  the  city  prison,  where  he  soon  died  from  the  effects 
of  the  cruel  scourging. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      163 

YEA,    MOREOVKR,  OF  BONDS  AND  IMPRISONMENTS 

An  elder  in  the  English  Methodist  Church  in  Yung 
Ping  Fu,  named  Wang  Pao^  had  seen  his  seventeen- 
year-old  son  beaten  to  death.  Repeated  blows  fell  on 
his  own  body,  as,  bruised  and  bleeding,  he  was  appealed 
to  three  times,  "Will  you  recant  now?'  "No!  no!  no! 
not  if  you  kill  me!"  was  his  reply.  Thrust  into 
prison,  he  languished  there  three  moniihs  until  Russian 
troops,  led  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  took  possession 
of  the  city. 

Almost  incredible  were  the  sufferings  of  Li  Fu, 
who  belonged  to  this  same  K'ai  P'ing  Circuit.  Cap- 
tured in  June  in  his  village  home  with  his  wife  and 
four  children,  he  was  stabbed  in  the  stomach,  his 
shoulders  and  back  were  burned  in  several  places,  the 
backs  of  his  heels  were  cut  so  severely  that  he  was 
crippled  for  life.  Lying  helpless,  he  was  compelled 
to  witness  the  torture  of  his  wife  and  little  children. 
Mrs.  Li's  clothes  were  torn  from  her;  one  child  re- 
ceived a  shot  in  the  back ;  another,  four  years  old, 
was  caught  by  the  feet  and  hurled  across  the  yard  like 
a  log  of  wood.  Then  Li  Fu  was  placed  on  a  cart  and 
bound  to  it  so  tightly  that  months  afterward  the  marks 
of  the  ropes  showed  upon  his  breast.  His  family  were 
also  placed  in  open  carts,  and  all  were  driven  thirty 
miles  to  Lan  Chou.  As  the  sun  blazed  down  upon  their 
heads  they  pleaded  for  water  to  quench  their  thirst, 
but  none  was  given  them.  Their  tormentors  begged 
the  Lan  Chou  magistrate  to  put  them  to  death ;  but, 
instead,  he  thrust  them  into  prison,  and  not  until  Sep- 
tember were  they  released. 

THEY  WERE  STONED 

Mr.  Wang  was  a  member  of  the  English  Baptist 
mission  in  Shansi.    He  was  well  known  as  a  Christian  ; 


i64      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

so,  when  the  trouble  broke  out,  he  had  to  flee  with  his 
wife  and  children.  He  took  them  to  a  waste  place  in 
the  open  country;  then,  thinking  that  they  would  be 
safer  if  he  were  not  there,  he  left  them,  intending 
to  flee  to  some  distant  place.  But  he  had  not  gone  far 
when  he  was  recognized  by  some  men  of  a  neighbor- 
ing village,  who  immediately  set  upon  him  with  stones, 
and  beat  him  until  he  was  insensible.  Finding  that 
he  was  not  dead,  they  then  beat  out  his  brains  with 
their  reaping-hooks.  All  of  the  members  of  his  family 
escaped. 

Mr.  T'ien,  of  the  K'ai  P'ing  Circuit,  was  stoned 
to  death,  and  his  body  was  thrown  into  the  river. 

THEY  were:  sawn   ASUNDER 

Liu  Li,  of  the  K'ai  P'ing  Circuit,  was  captured 
by  the  Boxers,  stabbed  with  knives  and  swords,  then 
actually  chopped  into  small  pieces.  Not  content  with 
this,  the  murderers  were  proposing  to  burn  the  remains, 
but  they  were  restrained  by  some  old  neighbors  of  Liu 
Li  who  were  neither  Boxers  nor  Christians,  who  dared 
to  gather  together  the  poor  remains  and  bury  them 
reverently. 

Chang  Yu  Wen,  seventeen  years  of  age,  an  only 
child,  was  cut  in  several  pieces;  then  the  fragments 
were  nailed  on  a  wall. 

THEY  WERE  TEMPTED 

In  a  village  in  the  Pin  Chou  District,  Mr.  Cheng, 
sixty-four  years  of  age,  a  member  of  the  English 
Baptist  Church,  was  captured  by  ten  or  more  Boxers, 
who  at  twilight  were  returning  from  their  worship. 
Seizing  him,  they  asked,  "Do  you  still  worship  every 
seven  days  ?"  He  replied,  "I  still  worship."  The  Box- 
ers pointed  their  swords  at  him,  saying,  "If  you  will 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      165 

promise  not  to  study  the  doctrine,  we  will  not  kill  you." 
He  answered :  "Though  you  threaten  to  kill  me,  yet 
it  is  my  purpose  to  study  the  doctrine.  If  I  say  that 
I  will  not  study,  I  can  not  face  God  with  a  good  con- 
science." The  Boxers  dragged  him  some  distance, 
then  set  upon  him  with  their  swords.  To  the  end  he 
would  not  recant,  and  he  was  chopped  to  fragments 
by  the  roadside. 

In  Manchuria  there  was  a  Christian  called  Old 
Blind  Chang,  who,  having  been  seized  by  the  Boxers, 
was  taken  to  the  temple  and  commanded  to  worship 
idols.  He  said  to  his  persecutors,  "I  can  only  worship 
the  one  living  and  true  God."  When  commanded  to 
repent,  he  said,  "I  have  repented  already."  When 
asked  if  he  would  believe  in  Buddha,  he  answered, 
**No,  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ."  ''Then  you  must  die," 
they  said,  and  as  the  sword  came  down  to  behead  him, 
Old  Chang  was  singing  a  hymn. 

A  woman  belonging  to  a  Church  of  the  American 
Board  in  Peking  stood  with  her  child  in  her  arms, 
and  was  given  two  chances  to  recant.  "I  can  not  do 
that,  sir,"  was  her  reply  to  her  tempter,  *'but  I  can  die 
for  my  Lord."  Soon  she  heard  from  her  Master's  lips 
the  blessing  promised  to  those  who  endure  temptation, 
and  received  the  crown  of  life  which  he  had  promised 
to  them  that  love  him. 

THEY  WERE  SLAIN  WITH  THE  SWORD 

In  the  Pin  Chou  District  of  the  English  Baptist 
mission,  Mrs.  Chao  left  her  home,  and  hid  in  the  house 
of  a  relative  in  a  neighboring  village.  The  Boxers 
heard  of  it,  and  sought  her  out.  When  she  knew  that 
there  was  no  escape,  she  fearlessly  followed  the  Box- 
ers outside  the  village.  There  they  ordered  her  to 
kneel,  facing  the  southeast,  that  she  might  worship 


i66      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

their  gods.  She  refused  to  turn  her  face  in  that  direc- 
tion, saying,  ''Since  I  have  learned  the  doctrine  I  do 
not  worship  devils,  but  only  the  true  God."  So  she 
knelt  in  a  different  direction,  and  the  enraged  Boxers 
set  upon  her  with  their  swords,  and  then  burned  the 
remains  to  ashes. 

In  the  Hsin  Chou  region,  in  Shansi,  two  brothers 
met  with  other  faithful  ones  in  a  little  Christian  chapel 
on  the  1st  of  July.  The  Boxers  broke  in  on  the  com- 
pany, but  the  two  brothers  managed  to  escape  to  their 
own  village.  Immediately  they  were  attacked  by  local 
Boxers,  their  house  was  set  on  fire,  and  the  elder 
brother  was  burned  in  his  own  home.  The  younger  was 
taken  to  the  temple  of  the  God  of  War  in  the  city, 
to  be  tried  before  a  Boxer  tribunal.  It  was  at  first 
decided  that  if  he  would  provide  fifty  swords  for  the 
Boxers  he  would  be  liberated ;  but  when  this  decision 
was  announced,  two  Boxers  knelt  before  the  chief  and 
begged  that  he  might  be  killed  at  once,  "because  he 
had  done  much  mischief."  Their  request  was  granted, 
and  he  was  handed  over  to  their  tender  mercies.  As  he 
was  being  led  along,  he  said,  "This  is  the  happiest  day 
of  my  life."  This  angered  his  persecutors  all  the  more, 
and  as  soon  as  they  were  outside  the  city  gate  they 
set  upon  him  with  their  swords  and  killed  him. 

the:y  went  about  in  sheepskins,  in  goatskins, 

BEING  destitute 

On  the  9th  of  June,  Mrs.  Li,  with  her  husband, 
her  four-year-old  girl,  her  baby,  and  several  friends, 
left  her  home  at  Ts'ao  Fang,  near  the  mission  of  the 
American  Board  at  T'ungchou,  and  took  refuge  in  the 
Eastern  Mountains,  eighty  miles  away.  Two  days  and 
nights  they  walked,  not  stopping  to  sleep;  then,  ex- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      167 

hausted,  they  lay  down  behind  a  temple  for  a  night. 
Mr.  Li  left  his  wife  and  children  to  beg  through  the 
little  mountain  villages,  and  started  back  home ;  for  his 
feeble  old  mother  and  oldest  daughter  had  been  left 
behind.*  For  five  and  a  half  months  the  little  mother, 
with  one  child  on  her  breast,  and  leading  the  other  by 
the  hand,  climbed  the  steep,  stony  mountains,  some- 
times sleeping  in  caves,  sometimes  begging  for  food, 
sometimes  getting  a  little  work  to  do  in  some  hamlet 
home.  Her  husband  could  get  no  trace  of  her,  and 
mourned  her  as  dead.  Late  in  November  there  ap- 
peared at  the  mission  in  Peking,  where  her  husband 
was  living,  a  thin,  ragged  beggar  woman,  her  face 
blackened  by  exposure.  She  carried  a  half-starved 
baby,  and  led  a  forlorn  little  girl  by  the  hand.  It  was 
Mrs.  Li.  She  was  nearly  dead  from  cold  and  hunger 
and  the  long  journey  on  foot.  Only  a  thin  cotton  gar- 
ment had  protected  her  from  mountain  winds  and 
snows.  It  was  weeks  before  she  could  rise  from  her 
bed. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chao,  an  aged  couple  belonging  to 
this  same  T'ungchou  mission,  fled  to  Kalgan,  then  over 
the  mountains  into  Shansi,  traveling  on  foot  not  less 
than  a  thousand  miles.  How  Mrs.  Chao  had  clambered 
up  the  mountain  steeps  on  her  poor,  crippled  feet,  how 
she  had  endured  the  famine  and  nakedness  and  sword, 
only  those  can  understand  who  have  tried  God's  grace 
in  their  time  of  weakness,  and  found  it  sufficient. 

AFFFLICTED,    EVIL    ENTREATED 

Mr.  Hobart,  of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal 
mission,  writes:  "I  have  visited  Ch'ien  An  (province 
of  Chihli),  where  about  a  hundred  were  killed  with 


*  See  story  entiUed  "  An  Orphan  Girl,"  in  Chapter  VIII. 


i68      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

every  cruelty.  Many  were  first  tied  up  to  posts  in  a 
temple,  and  their  faces  burned  with  lighted  incense 
until  the  oil  dropped  on  the  ground.  Then  they  were 
taken  outside  and  chopped  to  pieces,  beginning  at  the 
fingers,  and  hacking  off  a  joint  at  a  time,  and  then  from 
the  toes  in  the  same  way.  One  man  exhorted  them, 
and  they  jlit  his  mouth  from  ear  to  ear.  One  man 
was  buried  alive." 

The  Boxers  cut  off  the  hands  and  feet  of  Mrs,  Li, 
a  member  of  the  English  Methodist  mission  in  the  K'ai 
P'ing  Circuit,  and  before  life  had  ebbed  away  they 
buried  her. 

Li  Kai,  an  old  man  of  over  sixty,  in  Shansi,  was 
arrested  by  the  people  of  his  own  village,  and  handed 
over  to  the  Boxers,  who  took  him  to  the  city.  When 
brought  before  the  official,  he  was  too  dazed  to  answer 
any  questions,  and  the  official  in  anger  ordered  him 
to  be  beaten.  When  nearly  insensible  he  was  dragged 
out  to  undergo  one  of  the  most  cruel  forms  of  torture 
known.  He  was  placed  in  a  tall,  wooden  cage,  with 
only  his  head  protruding  from  an  aperture  in  the  top, 
his  toes  barely  reaching  the  ground.  Here  he  remamed 
several  hours;  then  he  was  taken  out,  and  executed 
with  others  outside  the  city  wall. 

An  old  man  in  the  T'ungchou  field  was  buried  in  the 
ground  up  to  his  waist,  then  kerosene  was  poured  over 
the  upper  part  of  his  body,  and  he  was  set  on  fire. 

Why  continue  this  sickening  rehearsal  of  barbari- 
ties? It  would  not  be  given,  even  in  this  brief  form, 
but  for  the  fact  that  the  wondrous  fidelity  of  these 
Christians  can  not  stand  out  in  its  true  light  except 
against  this  dark  background.  With  tortures  like  these 
awaiting  them,  frail  women  said,  "I  can  not  deny  my 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      169 

Lord ;"  then  babes  were  torn  from  their  arms  and 
dismembered,  but  the  agonized  mother  hearts  were 
comforted  when  heaven's  gates  opened,  and  they  saw 
their  little  ones  in  the  arms  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 

WANDERING    IN    DKSKRTS   AND    MOUNTAINS   AND    CAVES, 
AND  THE   HOLES  OF  THE  EARTH 

Such  was  the  life  of  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands, 
of  those  who  escaped.  Whole  families,  feeble  women 
and  little  children,  lived  for  weeks  in  mountain  ravines, 
now  scorched  by  heat,  now  drenched  by  rain,  now 
chilled  by  mountain  winds.  They  knew  the  pangs  of 
hunger ;  they  almost  perished  of  thirst ;  for  they  did 
not  dare  go  to  the  village  wells,  and  most  of  the 
mountain  springs  were  dry.  Hunted  like  wild  beasts, 
they  pleaded  the  promise,  "Thou  shalt  not  be  afraid 
for  the  terror  by  night,"  then  lay  down  in  mountain 
caves,  hearing  now  the  howling  of  wolves,  now  the 
howling  of  men  worse  than  beasts.  A  girl  from  a 
boarding-school  in  Peking  fled  in  June  with  her  parents 
and  brothers  to  the  Eastern  Mountains.  Her  feet  had 
never  been  bound ;  but  now,  to  avoid  recognition  as  a 
Christian,  it  was  necessary  to  bind  them  into  little 
shoes.  Up  precipitous  mountains  they  climbed,  and 
down  the  stony  ravines,  now  begging  for  food,  now 
buying  coarse  grain  to  cook  in  their  own  kettle.  Some 
nights  a  kind-hearted  family  would  shelter  them ;  some 
nights  they  slept  with  the  calm  stars  looking  down  on 
them.  Their  wanderings  took  them  hundreds  of  miles 
over  the  mountains  and  beyond  the  Great  Wall,  often 
in  the  trackless  wilderness,  and  not  until  October  did 
they  reach  a  haven  of  rest. 


170      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

OF   WHOM    THE   WORLD   WAS    NOT   WORTHY. 

"Therefore  let  us  also,  seeing  we  are  compassed 
about  with  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  lay  aside 
every  weighty,  and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset  us, 
and  let  us  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before 
us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  perfecter  of  our 
faith,  who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him  endured 
the  cross,  despising  shame,  and  hath  sat  down  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God/' 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  FAITHFUL  UNTO  DEATH. 

"  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown 
of  life." 

I.I  TK  KUKI 

Eighth:e;n  miles  south  of  T'ungchou  lies  the  market- 
town  of  Yung  Le  Tien.  Here  Mr.  Li,  a  graduate  of  the 
theological  seminary  at  T'ungchou,  had  for  many  years 
shepherded  a  flock  in  the  town  and  the  surrounding 
villages.  His  three  oldest  children  were  in  boarding- 
school  in  T'ungchou  and  Peking ;  but  three  little  boys, 
the  youngest  a  wee  laddie  who  came  into  the  home 
late  in  April,  were  with  their  parents  in  the  little  vil- 
lage which  formed  a  suburb  of  th^  walled  town.  It 
was  a  troubled  world  into  which  the  little  one  had 
come.  For  weeks  amateur  Boxers  had  been  practicing 
their  strange  rites  in  the  village,  and  rumors  and  threats 
daily  reached  the  ears  of  Mr.  Li  and  his  little  wife. 
The  atmosphere  of  respect  and  confidence  in  wdiich  they 
had  lived,  had  changed  to  one  of  suspicion.  Wild  su- 
perstition had  been  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people,  and  some  of  its  strangest  fancies  were  con- 
nected with  the  little  life  which  had  come  to  be  a 
blessing. 

"Have  you  seen  Mrs.  Li's  baby?"  was  the  question 
which  flew  from  lip  to  lip.  "It  has  black  wings. 
That 's  what  comes  of  associating  with  the  foreign 
devils.  Soon  this  child  will  be  flying  about  on  the 
devil's  own  business." 

171 


172      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

It  was  Thursday,  the  last  day  of  May.  Still  the 
fields  were  bare,  and  the  idle  people  in  nearly  every 
village  in  that  populous  region  were  banded  together 
as  Boxers.  In  a  temple,  only  a  few  yards  from  Mr. 
Li's  home,  they  set  up  their  altar  that  day.  The  ear- 
nest efforts  of  the  missionaries,  the  half-hearted  efforts 
of  native  officials,  had  scattered  the  Boxer  bands  sev- 
eral times ;  but  now  they  dared  any  one  to  thwart  them. 
From  all  the  surrounding  regions  they  came  that  day, 
until  thousands  swarmed  near  Mr.  Li's  house,  and  the 
cruel  cry,  "Kill !  kill !"  rang  again  and  again  through 
the  air. 

The  shadows  were  deepening  over  Mr.  Li's  happy 
home  and  his  little  Church.  Still  about  thirty  men, 
women,  and  children  gathered  for  their  Sunday  meet- 
ings, and  every  evening  some  knelt  in  the  little  chapel 
Vv^ith  Mr.  Li  and  his  family  as  they  told  their  fears 
and  cares  to  their  Heavenly  Father.  In  the  next  yard 
lived  Mr.  Yang  with  his  v/ife,  his  sixteen-year-old 
daughter,  and  his  eight-year-old  son.  Many  times  he 
had  been  sent  by  Mr.  Li  to  carry  word  of  the  impending 
danger  to  the  missionaries. 

The  next  day  after  the  Boxer  altar  was  openly  set 
up  in  the  temple  close  by,  the  Li's  were  startled  by 
hearing  two  rifle-shots  near  the  chapel  in  front  of  their 
house.  Another  day  hundreds  of  Boxers  in  battle 
array,  passed  their  door  and  pointed  to  the  place. 
"First  we  will  burn  Niu  Mu  T'un;  then  this  will 
come  next." 

"It  is  only  a  matter  of  a  few  days  now,"  said  Mr. 
Li  to  his  brave  little  wife.  "Would  you  like  to  go  to 
your  mother's  home  in  Fu  Ho,  or  to  the  missionaries 
in  T'ungchou?" 

"Would  you  go,  too?" 

"No;  I  can  not  leave  my  church  and  people." 


71 


J. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      173 

''Then  I  will  not  go  either;  if  we  must  die,  let  us 
die  together.  Besides,  there  are  Boxers  everywhere; 
there  is  no  refuge  where  we  would  be  safe.  God  grant 
that  at  least  one  of  the  older  children  may  be  spared 
to  do  the  work  which  we  may  soon  lay  down." 

"I  shall  not  let  Li  Jui  come  home,"  said  the  father. 
"He  is  still  with  your  brother  in  Fu  Ho.  They  are 
young,  and  may  escape  by  hiding  in  the  mountains. 
And  perhaps  our  girls  will  be  safe  in  Peking."* 

The  night  of  June  6th  came.  Mr.  Yang  went  to 
collect  rent  due  on  a  house  which  he  owned  in  the 
town.  "Do  you  think  I  am  such  a  fool  as  to  pay  you 
that  rent  when  you  are  as  good  as  a  dead  man?"  ex- 
claimed the  tenant,  and  a  crowd  of  rowdies  near  joined 
in  the  laugh.  "None  of  your  erh  mao-tzu  can  collect 
any  more  rent." 

From  other  hints  dropped  by  the  crowd,  Mr.  Yang 
was  convinced  that  there  was  a  definite  plan  to  attack 
the  Christians  immediately.  He  hastened  home,  and 
about  midnight  stole  secretly  into  Mr.  Li's  yard. 

After  hearing  his  story  Mr.  Li  said,  "I  want  you 
to  go  to  T'ungchou  again  to  tell  the  missionaries." 

"And  you  will  not  flee?" 

"No,  how  can  I?  God  bless  you.  We  may  never 
meet  again  in  this  world." 

Tears  were  running  down  the  faces  of  the  two 
men  as  they  parted,  and  Mr.  Li's  words  proved  pro- 
phetic ;  they  have  not  met  again.  Even  while  they 
were  talking,  in  Niu  Mu  T'un,  six  miles  away  hungry 
flames  were  devouring  the  chapel  and  Christian  homes, 
and  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  were  being 
slaughtered  like  sheep. 


*  Ll  Jui  (see  "  Kao  Hsin's  Story  "  in  Chapter  VIII)  was  a  student  in  the 
academy  in  T'ungchou  and  when  the  school  closed  late  in  May  he  went 
to  his  uncle's  home.  Two  girls  were  in  the  Bridgman  School  in  Peking, 
(See  "  An  Orphan  Girl's  Story  "  in  Chapter  VIIT.) 


174      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Thursday  morning  dawned  bright  and  beautiful. 
The  Boxer  temple  seemed  almost  deserted,  for  all  of 
the  Yung  Le  Tien  Boxers  were  helping  in  the  massacre 
at  Niu  Mu  T'un  and  the  surrounding  villages.  About 
nine  in  the  morning  a  blind  woman  belonging  to  the 
Church  came  in,  greatly  excited: 

"A  neighbor  has  just  come  to  me  privately,  and 
warned  me  to  flee  at  once.  He  says  that  the  Boxers 
have  already  killed  the  Christians  at  Niu  Mu  T'un." 

"Then  our  turn  will  come  soon,"  said  Mr.  Li ;  "let 
us  be  ready." 

**But  would  it  not  be  well  to  send  some  one  to 
Niu  Mu  T'un  to  see  whether  the  report  is  true?" 

''Certainly.  Yuan  Liu,  you  are  a  swift  runner. 
Will  you  go  on  this  dangerous  errand?" 

The  young  man  to  whom  Mr.  Li  had  turned  was  off 
in  a  few  moments.  It  was  eleven  or  later  when  he 
returned;,  saying: 

"1  saw  only  the  smoking  ruins  of  our  buildings, 
and  heard  that  all  of  the  Christians  had  been  killed 
except  one  or  two  who  escaped  in  the  darkness." 

"Did  you  see  no  Boxers?" 

"They  had  left  Niu  Mu  T'un,  and  were  hunting 
down  Christians  in  other  villages.  A  band  started  after 
me  once,  but  I  soon  ran  out  of  their  sight." 

There  were  twenty-two  people  gathered  in  Mr.  Li's 
room  when  this  report  was  given,  all  of  the  Christians 
in  the  town  except  one  family  named  Wu,  though  as 
many  more  lived  in  neighboring  villages. 

"Let  us  all  start  for  T'ungchou,"  said  Mr.  Li. 
"It  is  our  only  chance  for  life.  We  can  protect  the 
church  property  here  no  longer," 

They  all  knelt  together,  and  Mr.  Li's  voice  rose 
in  prayer :  "Father,  if  it  is  thy  will  that  we  perish  on 
this  journey,  we  will  rejoice  to  go  home  to  thee.     If 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS      175 

it  is  thy  will  that  wc  reach  T'ungchou  in  safety,  we 
will  thank  thee."  Others  tried  to  add  a  word  of  prayer ; 
but  nearly  all  were  weeping,  and  the  strong  crying  and 
tears  went  up  as  a  petition. 

Soon  they  were  on  their  feet  again,  Mr.  Li  saying : 
**\Ve  must  start  at  once ;  a  moment's  delay  may  mean 
death.  We  twenty  people  must  not  all  go  together. 
We  must  break  up  into  little  groups  to  avoid  attracting 
attention." 

It  was  a  strange  company  which  went  out  into 
the  noonday  heat  of  that  June  day.  In  the  first  group 
walked  a  young  man  named  Chang,  with  five  chil- 
dren,— his  six-year-old  sister,  Mr.  Li's  two  little  boys, 
and  Mrs.  Yang's  two  children.  Only  a  short  distance 
behind  were  Mrs.  Yang  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Li,  with 
their  baby,  now  forty  days  old.  Still  further  behind 
were  ten  others,  most  of  them  women.  All  moved 
slowly ;  for  some  were  ill,  some  were  feeble  with  old 
age,  and  some  were  treading  that  path  to  martyrdom 
with  a  child's  unsteady  step. 

They  had  gone  three  miles  on  their  journey  when 
they  saw  smoke  rising  from  the  village  of  Lu  Ts'un, 
just  a  little  to  the  left  of  the  road.  ''They  are  burning 
the  Wangs'  home !"  some  one  exclaimed.  Air.  Chang, 
still  walking  in  front  with  the  children,  saw  on  the 
edge  of  the  village  tables  and  benches  arranged  for 
feasting  the  Boxers,  and,  just  as  he  had  passed  un- 
noticed, the  Boxers  caught  sight  of  the  next  group, 
and  hundreds  of  them  rushed  out,  armed  with  swords 
and  spears,  followed  by  crowds  of  villagers.  Looking 
back,  Air.  Chang  saw  a  stalwart  Boxer  leader  seize 
Mrs.  Yang  by  her  collar. 

"Mamma !  mamma !"  cried  her  two  children,  and 
ran  back  sobbing.  The  little  Li  boys  and  Mr.  Chang's 
little  sister  also  ran  back  into  the  grasp  of  the  wild 


176      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

beasts.  The  young  man  fled,  and  late  that  afternoon 
the   missionaries   in   T'ungchou   heard   his   sad   story. 

The  leader  who  had  caught  Mrs.  Yang  was  a  well- 
known  neighbor.  '* Where  are  you  going?"  he  asked 
roughly. 

"To  T'ungchou." 

''This  is  your  place,"  he  said,  laughing  triumph- 
antly, as  he  pointed  to  the  hundreds  of  Boxers  who 
had  closed  in  on  the  little  group,  brandishing  knives 
and  spears. 

"What  do  you  want?"  asked  Mr.  Li.  "We  will 
give  you  all  we  are  carrying." 

"We  want  your  life." 

Mr.  Li  knelt  with  both  hands  outstretched  to 
heaven:  "Father,  if  you  want  us  to  go" — but  before 
the  prayer  was  finished  a  rough  hook  fastened  to  a  long 
pole  dragged  him  over  backward. 

"Why  do  you  hate  us  ?"  cried  Mrs.  Li,  looking  into 
the  faces  of  neighbors  whom  she  knew.  "Have  not 
many  of  you  been  healed  with  our  medicine?" 

We  are  describing  the  events  of  a  few  moments. 
Mrs.  Yang  had  been  dragged  to  one  side;  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Li,  with  the  six  children,  were  surrounded  by 
the  Boxer  ruffians.  The  distracted  mother,  Mrs.  Yang, 
saw  her  boy  and  girl  lying  there.  Some  of  the  Boxers 
seemed  reluctant  to  do  the  fiendish  work  which  awaited 
them.  Again  and  again  they  circled  around  their  pris- 
oners, waving  their  swords  and  uttering  wild  cries, 
until  a  devilish  frenzy  seized  them,  and  with  frothing 
mouths  and  fixed,  staring  eyes,  they  plunged  knives 
and  spears  into  their  helpless  victims.  Mrs.  Li  pleaded 
for  her  tiny  baby,  and  they  answered  by  taking  it  from 
her  arms  and  offering  it  as  their  first  sacrifice.  Mr. 
Li  was  the  last  one  of  the  family  to  close  his  eyes  to 
earth's  horrors.    When  the  mad  crowd  had  scattered 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      177 

a  little,  Mrs.  Yang  saw  that  her  boy  was  still  breathing. 
Breaking  away  from  her  captor  she  bent  over  the 
child,  begging  him  to  speak  to  her;  but  he  was  too 
weak  for  words,  and  the  *'Teacher-brother"  was  upon 
Mrs.  Yang  in  a  minute. 

"If  you  speak  to  him,  I  '11  kill  you.  Listen !  You 
are  not  to  cry  for  three  days.  No,  I  shall  not  kill  you 
now.  We  are  keeping  you  alive  for  a  purpose.  For 
weeks  your  husband  has  been  running  back  and  forth 
as  a  spy  for  the  foreigners.  We  '11  keep  you  for  a 
decoy.     W^hen  he  comes  back,  we  '11  have  you  both." 

So  Mrs.  Yang  was  compelled  to  leave  the  bodies 
of  her  children  by  the  roadside,  was  placed  on  a  donkey, 
and  escorted  by  Boxers  back  to  Yung  Le  Tien,  whither 
several  of  those  in  the  last  group  had  fled  when  the 
Boxers  attacked  the  Li  family. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  Mr.  Chang  who  escaped, 
and  whose  sister  lay  with  seven  others  by  the  roadside. 
His  widowed  mother  and  younger  brother,  who  had 
been  near  the  end  of  the  caravan,  came  to  that  sad  pile 
of  mangled  bodies  soon  after  Mrs.  Yang  had  left. 
There  she  found  her  little  girl.  Somewhere  in  that 
mass,  she  thought,  lay  her  oldest  son. 

"Kill  me  too!"  she  cried  in  anguish  as  she  knelt 
down  in  the  dust.  "You  have  killed  my  son  and 
daughter ;  kill  me  too." 

But  the  Boxers,  for  some  strange  reason,  did  not 
heed  her  prayer.* 

One  who  passed  over  this  road  a  few  hours  later 
saw  that  two  pits  had  been  dug  into  which  the  eight 
bodies  had  been  thrown  and  roughly  buried.  It  will 
ever  be  a  sacred  spot,  that  wayside  grave,  where  man 


"•■■More  than  a  year  after  that  sad  day  she  and  her  little  son  were  found 
in  the  province  of  Shantung,  and  a  few  months  later  she  joined  the  son 
whom  she  had  mourned  as  lost. 
12 


178      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

and  wife,  "faithful  unto  death,"  lay  with  the  lambs  of 
their  flock  whom  they  had  shepherded  so  tenderly. 
In  the  spring,  when  the  grave  was  opened  that  the 
martyrs  might  be  placed  in  coffins,  Mr.  Li's  body  was 
found  still  in  an  attitude  of  prayer.  So  it  Will  lie  until 
the  great  day. 

During  those  first  months  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Li 
spent  in  the  "many  mansions,"  their  oldest  son  wan- 
dered over  lonely  mountains,  weary,  hungry,  hunted. 
Their  oldest  daughter  was  besieged  with  shot  and 
shell  in  the  Peking  legations,  and  their  eleven-year-old 
daughter  wandered  by  night  from  village  to  village, 
hiding  in  cemeteries,  kept  through  danger  after  danger 
by  Omnipotent  love.  After  a  few  days,  Mr.  Li  wel- 
comed to  his  haven  of  rest  his  old  mother  and  his 
youngest  sister ;  and  Mrs.  Li's  mother  and  many  others, 
near  and  dear,  were  soon  with  the  white-robed  multi- 
tude. One  by  one  members  of  the  Yung  Le  Tien 
Church  joined  their  pastor,  as  the  Boxers  hunted  them 
down  in  their  homes,  or  in  the  hiding-places  where 
they  had  taken  refuge.  There  was  eighty-year-old 
Mrs.  Yuan,  with  her  snowy  hair  and  bowed  back,  and 
lips  that  mumbled  as  she  walked.  Some  Boxers  met 
her  one  day  as  she  crawled  slowly  down  a  bank  to 
go  to  a  shop  for  food,  and  heard  her  murmuring  to 
herself.  "Wherever  you  go,  you  still  pray  to  Jesus !" 
they  exclaimed  angrily.  "You  will  never  repent/'  and 
their  swords  cut  her  down  on  the  spot. 

That  same  day  another  dear  woman,  who  had 
learned  in  her  old  age  to  read  all  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, was  slashed  on  the  back  by  Boxer  knives  as  she 
bent  over  her  little  stove,  baking,  and  with  the  blood 
streaming  from  her  wounds  she  was  dragged  to  the 
Boxer  temple  and  slowly  sliced  to  pieces. 

The  flock  now  rest  peacefully  m  the  fold  of  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      179 

Good  Shepherd.  Perhaps  to  the  faithful  evangelist 
who,  like  Jesus,  "loved  them  unto  the  end,"  is  given  the 
joy  of  ministering  to  them. 

A  GIRI^'S  TESTliMONY 

This  girl,  who  had  studied  many  years  in  the  Bridg- 
man  school,  was  betrothed  to  Li  Jui,  oldest  son  of  the 
noble  evangelist  whose  death  has  just  been  recorded. 
After  the  school  disbanded,  her  father  took  her  to  her 
home  in  a  village  near  T'ungchou,  and  when  danger 
became  imminent,  he  started  with  her  for  the  Eastern 
Mountains,  the  girl  riding  on  a  donkey,  her  father 
walking  by  her  side.  Before  they  had  found  a  refuge, 
a  band  of  Boxers  saw  them,  and  knowing  by  the  girl's 
unbound  feet  that  she  was  a  Christian,  they  pursued 
her  and  dragged  her  from  her  donkey  to  a  Boxer  altar 
in  a  neighboring  village.  Here,  surrounded  by  cruel 
foes,  she  was  commanded  to  burn  incense  to  the  gods. 

"No,"  she  said,  "I  can  not  burn  incense,  for  I 
believe  in  Jesus.  I  am  not  afraid,  even  though  you  kill 
me,  for  I  shall  go  straight  to  my  Heavenly  Father." 

Hardly  had  she  ceased  speaking  when  she  heard  his 
"Welcome  home." 

A  deacon's  devotion 

One  of  the  missionaries  at  Peking  writes  thus  of 
a  deacon  in  a  Congregational  Church  in  one  of  the 
Peking  out-stations : 

"I  saw  him  in  April  at  the  time  when  the  Boxers 
were  just  commencing  their  work.  He  said,  'I  shall 
not  run  ;  I  want  to  die  in  the  Lord's  house.'  The 
neighbors  sent  word  that  the  Boxers  were  coming  a 
certain  nic^ht  to  kill  him,  and  he  should  hide.  He 
said,  'I  could  not  if  I  would,  and  I  would  not  if  I 
could.'     He  made  the  family  all  leave  him,  and  he 


i8o      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

waited  alone.  They  came,  a  large  band,  set  fire  first 
to  the  other  houses  in  his  yard,  then  to  the  room  he  was 
in.  When  they  opened  the  door  they  found  the  old 
man  standing  leaning  up  against  the  wall,  with  his 
arms  outstretched  to  form  a  cross,  and  as  these  men 
rushed  at  him  with  drawn  swords  he  said,  'I  die  on 
the  cross  with  my  Lord.'  " 

SHOWING  HIS  COLORS 

For  many  years  Mr.  Chang,  of  Ting  Chou,  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Congregational  Church  at  Pao 
Ting  Fu.  When  he  heard  that  Pastor  Meng  had  been 
killed  by  the  Boxers,  he  thought  of  some  Christians 
near  him  who  might  be  tempted  to  recant,  and  decided 
to  go  to  their  homes  and  try  to  strengthen  them.  He 
found  all  of  their  houses  deserted ;  but  going  into  one, 
he  knelt  down  and  prayed;  then  he  sang  a  hymn  and 
went  back  to  his  own  home.  Writing  the  words,  "I 
am  a  member  of  the  Jesus  Church,"  on  a  piece  of  paper, 
he  posted  it  up  on  his  door.  A  few  days  later,  just 
as  he  was  sitting  down  to  eat,  the  warning  was  given, 
*'The  Boxers  are  coming."  **They  must  wait  until  I 
have  asked  the  blessing,"  he  said  quietly,  and  as  he 
sat  with  his  head  bowed  in  prayer  the  Boxers  rushed 
in  and  cut  him  down. 

A  HEROIC   MOTHER  AND  SON 

In  Chapter  IV  have  been  recorded  touching  in- 
stances of  the  loyalty  of  the  Christians  at  Tai  Ku  to 
the  martyred  missionaries  of  the  American  Board.  No 
less  conspicuous  was  their  loyalty  to  their  Lord,  for 
nowhere  were  the  temptations  to  recant  more  trying 
than  in  Shansi. 

Mrs.  Wang's  home  was  at  Tung  Fang,  five  miles 
from  Tai  Ku.     During  the  three  or  four  years  that 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      i8i 

Mrs.  Wang-  had  been  in  the  Church  she  had  shown 
herself  a  veritable  Dorcas.  All  loved  her,  and  willingly 
she  gave  of  her  abundant  substance  to  help  both  the 
poor  and  the  cause  which  she  loved. 

Her  son,  Chih  Pao,  had  studied  in  a  Confucian 
school  before  he  and  his  mother  became  Christians ; 
then  he  went  to  the  school  in  Tai  Ku.  When  he  went 
home  after  school  closed  in  June,  and  his  mother  knew 
the  danger  threatening  the  missionaries,  she  said : 
"My  son,  do  n't  stay  at  home  with  me.  Go  to  Tai 
Ku.  I  am  a  woman,  and  I  can't  do  anything  to  help 
the  missionaries.  You  know  how  much  we  owe  to 
them.  Since  they  love  us  so,  and  are  in  danger  for  our 
sakes,  we  ought  to  help  them.  Do  n't  let  your  heart 
be  burdened  for  me.  You  are  young ;  go  and  help 
them  to  the  extent  of  your  ability,  and  it  will  be  as  if 
I  were  helping  them." 

So  the  boy  went.  When  the  end  seemed  near  he 
went  once  to  see  his  widowed  mother,  then  turned 
his  face  toward  Tai  Ku  again. 

"Why  do  you  go  back  ?"  asked  a  neighbor. 

"My  mother  does  n't  want  me  to  stay  here,"  he 
said.  So  he  went  back  into  the  danger  which  had  not 
lost  its  horror  through  that  sad  familiarity  of  weeks. 

When  he  had  watched  with  the  missionaries,  not 
"one  hour,"  but  long  weeks,  and  that  great  multitude 
broke  in  to  slay  them,  Chih  Pao  escaped,  and  told  the 
sad  story  to  his  weeping  mother.  She  mourned  her 
loved  ones  only  three  or  four  days.  Then  began  that 
carnage  at  Tung  Fang  which  claimed  over  thirty  vic- 
tims !  When  the  Boxers  entered  Mrs.  Wang's  home, 
she  said  to  them,  "Wait  a  moment.  I  am  going  to  see 
my  Lord,  and  I  want  to  change  my  garments."  Per- 
haps her  calmness  awed  the  rough  men,  for  they  waited 
quietly  until  she  came  out  of  an  inner  room,  her  iac^ 


i82      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

uplifted  as  if  in  prayer,  and  knelt  before  her  mur- 
derers. 

As  the  Boxers  were  about  to  kill  the  boy,  they  said, 
"Kneel  down ;  we  will  send  you  to  heaven."  He  knelt, 
and  their  promise  was  fulfilled. 

LIANG  HSI  TAI 

Liang  Hsi  Tai  was  a  member  of  this  same  Church 
at  Tai  Ku.  After  the  truth  had  won  his  heart,  he  had 
given  up  personal  oversight  of  a  profitable  business 
that  he  might  live  at  the  mission  compound  and  learn 
more  of  the  truth  which  had  freed  him  from  the  opium 
habit,  and  brought  such  peace  to  body  and  mind.  After 
a  course  of  study  entirely  at  his  own  expense,  he  went 
to  have  charge  of  an  out-station  at  his  home  sixty-seven 
miles  away. 

When  the  trouble  came,  he  was  urged  to  obey  the 
imperial  orders  to  renounce  his  faith.  He  steadfastly 
refused.  When  he  was  seized  by  the  Boxers  he  said: 
"I  am  a  disciple  of  Jesus ;  I  can  not  worship  your  gods. 
If  you  want  to  kill  me,  do  it,  for  you  can  only  kill  my 
body;  you  can  not  hurt  my  soul,  and  I  do  not  fear 
you.'' 

RESPECT  FOR  THE  CROSS 

Wang  Tien  Jen  had  been  converted  through  the 
influence  of  China  Inland  missionaries,  and  at  the  time 
of  his  death  he  had  been  for  several  years  the  confi- 
dential helper  of  Mr.  Pigott,  of  Shou  Yang.  Into  his 
hands  Mr.  Pigott  committed  his  letter  of  farewell  to 
friends  in  the  homeland.  Soon  after  his  beloved  pas- 
tor had  been  sent  handcuffed  to  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  Mr. 
Wang  also  was  arrested  by  Boxers  and  taken  before 
a  mandarin,  with  whom  were  seated  a  military  official 
and  a  Boxer  chief.    A  circle  was  drawn  on  the  floor, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      183 

and  within  it  a  cross  was  inscribed.  Mr.  Wang  was 
then  ordered  to  show  his  contempt  for  the  cross  by 
polluting  it.  He  refused.  "It  is  only  to  show  that  you 
leave  the  Church,"  said  his  judges.  Again  he  refused 
to  show  contempt  for  tlie  sacred  emblem,  so  he  was 
led  away  for  execution. 

Faithfui.  Witnesses  of  the  English  Baptist 
Mission,  Shansi 

The  facts  given  in  the  five  stories  which  follow  were 
gleaned  from  an  article  by  Dr.  Edwards  published  in 
the  Shanghai  Mercury: 

A   MARTYR  FAMILY 

Chao  Hsi  Mao  was  so  well  known  as  a  Christian 
that  his  friends  urged  him  to  leave  his  home  and  seek 
a  hiding-place ;  but  he  refused  to  flee.  In  July  the 
Boxers  seized  him,  with  his  nineteen-year-old  wife, 
his  mother,  and  his  sister,  bound  them,  and  placed 
them  on  a  cart,  while  their  home  was  going  up  in 
smoke.  They  were  taken  to  Hsin  Chou ;  but  when 
they  were  led  before  the  Boxer  chief  he  exclaimed, 
"I  do  n't  want  to  see  them ;  take  them  back  and  kill 
them  where  you  arrested  them."  As  the  four  were 
being  driven  back  in  a  cart,  they  sang  together  the 
hymn,  "He  Leadeth  Me,"  and  their  hearts  were 
strengthened  as  they  sang, 

"E'en  death's  cold  wave  I  will  not  flee, 
Since  God  through  Jordan  leadeth  me." 

When  they  reached  a  vacant  spot  outside  their  own 
village  they  were  taken  from  the  cart.  The  man  was 
first  beheaded  with  a  huge  knife  used  for  cutting  straw. 
Still  the  faith  of  the  women  failed  not ;  they  would 
not  recant.    The  old  mother  said,  ''You  have  killed  my 


i84      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

son,  you  can  now  kill  me,"  and  she  too  was  beheaded. 
The  sister  and  wife  were  still  steadfast,  and  the  sister 
said,  "My  brother  and  mother  are  dead;  kill  me  too." 
When  only  the  young  wife  was  left,  she  pointed  to  the 
three  bodies  saying,  **You  have  killed  my  husband, 
mother,  and  sister ;  what  have  I  to  live  for  ?"  She  too 
is  numbered  with  the  sixteen  on  the  martyr  roll  of 
Hsin  Chou. 

''l  WILIv  NOT   KNEEIv  TO  D£:VIIvS'' 

Mr.  Hsi  was  a  marked  man  in  this  district,  for  he 
had  been  conspicuous  for  his  earnestness  in  preaching 
Christ  to  his  neighbors;  so  Boxers  from  several  vil- 
lages banded  together  to  seize  him.  He  was  bound 
and  taken  to  a  temple,  where  he  was  commanded  to 
kotow  to  the  Boxer  leader.  "I  am  a  child  of  God; 
I  will  not  kneel  to  devils,"  was  his  daring  reply.  In 
a  rage  the  leader  ordered  his  followers  to  beat  him. 
Prone  on  the  ground,  with  the  blows  falling  on  his 
body,  he  still  refused  to  kneel.  Hands  and  feet  were 
bound  together  behind  him,  and  slung  on  a  pole  he  was 
carried  to  the  boundary-line  between  two  villages  to 
meet  death  by  the  sword.  Soon  two  other  martyrs  lay 
by  his  side.  Chang  Lao  and  Hsi  Hua  Yu  had  been 
tried  in  the  village  temple,  and  the  Boxers  had  decreed 
that  they  must  die  unless  they  would  recant.  They  at 
once  refused  to  do  this.  Carried  to  the  spot  where 
Mr.  Hsi's  body  lay,  they  were  given  a  last  chance  to 
leave  the  Church,  but,  loyal  to  their  Master,  they  chose 
to  die. 

A  FAITHFUL  EVANGELIST 

In  another  district  in  this  mission,  Mr.  Chou  was 
in  charge  of  a  little  village  chapel.  Only  four  or  five 
years  had  passed  since  the  truth  had  been  proclaimed 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      185 

here;  yet  a  little  band  of  inquirers  met  as  usual  with 
Mr.  Chou  on  the  first  Sunday  in  July,  undaunted  by 
the  drilling  of  the  Boxers  and  the  alarming  rumors. 
Repeatedly  had  Mr.  Chou  been  urged  to  return  to  his 
home,  but  he  refused,  saying,  "I  have  been  appointed 
to  this  station,  and  I  shall  not  desert  my  post."  He 
had  even  sent  a  petition  to  the  magistrate  stating  that, 
if  the  Christians  were  at  fault,  he  was  responsible,  as 
he  had  taught  them  the  doctrine,  and  asking  that  he 
might  be  punished  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  people 
so  that  the  others  might  go  unmolested.  The  magis- 
trate paid  no  heed  to  this  touching  request,  and  the 
Boxers  knew  that  they  could  work  out  their  own  will. 
Very  suddenly  the  storm  broke  over  the  little  company 
in  the  chapel,  just  at  the  close  of  the  service.  Some 
escaped  while  the  mob  were  breaking  in  the  doors  and 
windows  and  setting  fire  to  the  chapel ;  others  were 
captured  and  killed  on  the  spot.  The  evangelist  was 
the  first  one  whom  the  Boxers  sought.  Dragging  him 
to  the  main  street,  they  beat  him  until  he  lay  uncon- 
scious. Regaining  consciousness,  he  tried  to  rise,  and 
was  kneeling  when  a  voice  cried  out,  "See!  he  is  pray- 
ing even  now !  Drag  him  to  the  fire !"  Immediately 
hands  were  outstretched  to  drag  him  to  the  burning 
chapel,  but  he  said,  "You  need  not  drag  me ;  I  will  go 
myself."  Quietly  he  walked  to  the  burning  building, 
and  as  soon  as  he  had  entered  the  roof  fell  in. 

ANOTHER   BURNT   OFFERING 

When  Kao  Lien  T'eng's  house  was  in  flames,  he 
was  arrested  and  taken  to  the  city  for  trial.  "Why  did 
you  enter  the  Church?"  asked  the  Boxer  chief.  "Be- 
cause it  is  good."  "Why,  then,  do  you  injure  people?" 
"I  do  harm  to  no  one."  "Well,"  said  the  chief,  "if 
you  will  leave  this  foreign  sect  and  worship  Buddha, 


i86      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

we  will  not  harm  you."  As  he  made  no  reply  the 
Boxers  cried  out,  "This  man  is  not  willing  to  repent; 
throw  him  into  the  fire."  The  ruins  of  the  city  chapel 
were  still  smoldering,  and  on  that  altar  he  was  offered 
up.  Soon  his  wife's  ashes  lay  with  his,  and  three  other 
members  of  the  family  were  numbered  with  the  mar- 
tyrs, only  two  surviving  the  storm. 

A   BRAVE    WOMAN 

When  the  Boxers  set  fire  to  a  Christian  home  in 
Fan  Hsi,  one  of  the  women  was  not  strong  enough 
to  run  far.  She  was  caught  in  a  neighboring  village, 
bound  to  a  tree  in  a  temple  court,  and  beaten,  while 
her  little  boy  stood  witnessing  her  sufferings.  The 
next  day  she  was  carried  as  a  prisoner  to  the  temple 
in  her  own  village.  There  she  gave  birth  to  a  child; 
but  it  was  torn  from  the  poor  mother's  arms,  and  the 
little  life  went  back  to  the  God  who  gave  it.  Then  the 
usual  mock  trial  was  held. 

"What  poison  have  you  with  which  to  do  mis- 
chief?" 

The  woman  bravely  replied:  "We  have  left  the 
false  and  turned  to  the  true;  we  have  forsaken  the 
evil  for  the  good.    How  have  we  done  any  mischief  ?" 

"She  is  not  telling  the  truth !"  screamed  the  Boxer 
leader,  "and  she  will  not  leave  the  foreign  sect.  She 
ought  to  be  burned !" 

At  once  a  part  of  her  home  which  had  not  been 
burned  was  set  on  fire,  and  at  the  point  of  the  sword  she 
and  her  six-year-old  boy  were  driven  into  the  flames. 
"One  like  the  Son  of  God"  walked  by  her  side;  but 
the  eyes  of  the  Boxers  were  holden,  that  they  could  not 
see  him. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      187 

WITNESSING  TO  THE  END 

In  this  same  city  lived  Mr.  Wang,  formerly  of  un- 
savory reputation  as  a  gambler  and  opium-smoker,  now- 
well  known  for  the  remarkable  change  which  had  taken 
place  in  his  life  at  his  conversion.  Although  he  had 
not  yet  been  baptized,  the  missionaries  had  intrusted 
him  with  books  to  sell,  and  in  all  that  region  he  was 
known  as  a  Christian.  He  happened  to  be  in  a  village, 
when  the  Boxers  laid  hands  on  him,  searched  him  for 
poison,  and  burned  the  Christian  books  which  he  was 
carrying.  Bleeding  from  sword-cuts,  he  was  carried 
bound  into  the  city  for  a  so-called  trial  in  front  of  the 
military  yamen. 

A  man  in  the  crowd  surrounding  him  said :  "We 
know  that  formerly  you  were  a  bad  character,  but  that 
you  have  reformed.  Only  leave  the  foreign  sect,  and 
you  will  not  be  killed."  Other  voices  joined  in  urging 
him  to  escape  death  by  leaving  the  "foreign  sect." 

He  said:  "I  have  already  left  the  foreign  sect 
[Buddhism],  and  now  follow  the  heavenly  doctrine, 
reverence  the  Supreme  Ruler,  and  believe  in  Jesus. 
How  can  you  say  that  I  belong  to  a  foreign  sect?" 

Many  more  words  he  spoke,  witnessing  to  the  one 
true  God,  before  the  Boxer  leader  cried  impatiently : 
"This  man  has  evidently  been  bewitched  by  the  for- 
eigners. What  is  this  that  he  is  talking  about?  If 
we  do  not  kill  him,  he  will  certainly  do  mischief." 

Outside  the  west  gate  of  the  city,  with  barbarous 
cruelty  he  was  put  to  death,  one  of  the  twenty-one  in 
Fan  Hsi  who  counted  not  their  lives  dear  unto  them- 
selves. 

TWO  SHANTUNG  MARTYRS 

At  a  village  in  the  Pin  Chou  District  lived  a  man 
named  Tuan,  a  member  of  the  English  Baptist  Church. 


i88      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

It  was  at  his  hour  of  morning  prayer  that  forty-five 
Boxers,  all  flourishing  swords,  rushed  in  upon  him, 
crying,  "Kill!  kill!" 

"Do  you  still  worship?"  asked  one  of  the  Boxers. 

"I  can  not  do  otherwise,"  was  the  reply. 

Forty-five  swords  vied  with  each  other  to  end  his 
life,  and  even  as  he  prayed  for  speedy  entrance  into 
heaven,  his  petition  was  answered. 

Mrs.  Yu,  a  young  Christian  woman,  was  discovered 
in  the  home  of  relatives  with  whom  she  had  taken 
refuge. 

"Come  out  of  the  village  at  once  and  be  killed!" 
cried  the  Boxers. 

"Wait  until  I  have  combed  my  hair,"  said  the 
woman,  calmly.  After  combing  her  hair  and  changing 
her  clothing  she  asked  her  captors,  "Where  do  you  wish 
to  kill  me?" 

"We  are  going  to  kill  you  west  of  the  village." 

Mrs.  Yu  followed  them  to  a  place  where  five  roads 
met.  There  they  tried  to  force  her  to  kneel  with  her 
face  toward  the  southeast;  but  she  resolutely  refused, 
saying,  "I  can  not  worship  the  false  gods  whom  you 
reverence."  She  lifted  up  her  soul  in  prayer;  but  the 
Boxers  did  not  wait  until  the  prayer  was  ended. 

LOYAIy  SOULS  IN  MANCHURIA 

The  six  whose  heroic  faith  is  recorded  here  were 
Presbyterians : 

A  preacher  stood  in  the  midst  of  his  tormentors. 
His  ears  were  cut  ofif,  his  eyes  were  gouged  out,  and 
he  was  asked : 

"Do  you  still  believe  in  Jesus?" 

"Yes,  I  believe  in  Jesus,"  he  replied. 

"This  will  stop  you,"  said  the  Boxers,  as  they  cut 
his  lips. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      189 

Death  was  long  in  coming  to  the  brave  soul ;  but 
at  last  he  heard  heavenly  music,  he  saw  a  glory  beyond 
that  of  the  sun,  his  lips  praised  the  Redeemer  who  had 
given  him  the  victory. 

An  old  man  whose  Christian  faith  had  not  been 
considered  very  strong,  was  bound  by  the  Boxers.  A 
crowd  of  spectators  begged  him  not  to  throw  away 
his  life. 

"Why  should  you  continue  in  the  Jesus  religion? 
Bend  the  knee  to  them,  and  crave  their  forgiveness." 

*'No,"  he  replied,  ''I  can  not.  The  Jesus  religion  is 
true.  What  of  my  life?  The  religion  which  I  possess 
is  an  everlasting  inheritance."  Only  death  cut  short 
his  testimony  for  the  God  he  loved. 

A  man  was  brought  before  the  Boxers,  and  asked 
whether  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic  or  a  "J^^us  Church'" 
man.  At  once  he  began  to  preach  the  truth  which  he 
believed,  and  was  beheaded  for  his  "impertinence." 
Twelve  other  members  of  his  family  died  with  him 
for  their  faith,  which  they  would  not  renounce. 

A  woman,  of  whom  a  missionary  speaks  as  "one  of 
the  ablest  women  I  have  seen  in  Manchuria,"  refused 
to  renounce  her  faith.  She  asked  time  to  pray  accord- 
ing to  the  customs  of  her  religion.  Kneeling  down,  she 
prayed  for  some  time ;  then  she  rose  and  sang  the  hymn, 
"At  the  Gate  of  Heaven."  Even  as  she  sang  with  all 
her  heart,  the  executioner's  knife  fell  on  her  neck,  and 
heaven's  gate  opened. 

It  is  reported  of  a  mother  that,  when  her  son  knelt 
before  her  to  say  farewell,  she  said :  "If  you  have 
faith,  God  will  take  care  of  us.  Do  not  trouble  about 
me  or  your  children.  If  you  deny  your  faith,  I  will 
no  longer  recognize  you  as  my  son." 

Another  Christian  said  to  his  assailants:  "You 
may  not  only  behead  me,  but  cut  my  body  in  fragments. 


I90      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Every  portion,  if  you  should  ask  it,  would  answer  that 
it  was  a  Christian." 

threie:  prb:sbyT£:rian  he:roe;s 

Tou  Wei  Ch'eng  was  a  young  man  of  about  twenty- 
four  years;  a  genial,  pleasant  fellow,  but  a  rather  in- 
different student.  After  some  years  in  the  Presbyterian 
school  it  had  been  thought  best  that  he  should  not  try 
to  complete  the  course,  and  he  had  accepted  an  appoint- 
ment under  the  American  Bible  Society  as  a  colporteur. 
On  foot,  or  on  the  back  of  donkey  or  mule,  his  saddle- 
bags full  of  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  Testaments,  and 
portions,  he  had  traveled  up  and  down,  back  and  forth, 
in  the  eastern  region  between  Peking  and  the  sea,  sell- 
ing many  thousands  of  the  Gospels  and  other  books, 
and  preaching  on  the  market-places  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ.  He  was  in  the  city  of  Peking  on  the 
13th  of  June,  that  day  of  bloody  slaughter,  and  in  a 
place  of  safety.  But  when  the  Boxers  and  sol- 
diers started  on  their  awful  nocturnal  round,  burn- 
ing, pillaging,  massacring,  this  young  man  thought 
at  once  of  the  Presbyterian  Christians  in  the 
northern  city  who  had  had  no  warning,  but  might 
yet  escape  if  one  should  take  to  them  the  word 
of  what  was  taking  place.  He  hastened  at  the  top 
of  his  speed  across  the  city,  gave  the  alarm,  and  snatch- 
ing up  some  of  the  little  ones,  helped  a  considerable 
number  of  Christians  to  escape  the  threatened  destruc- 
tion. Still  he  was  not  satisfied.  He  at  once  thought 
of  the  Christians  scattered  in  twoscore  villages  to  the 
east  of  the  city,  who  would  certainly  be  the  next  object 
of  Boxer  attack.  Making  his  way  out  through  one 
of  the  gates  of  the  city,  he  hurried  along  the  roads, 
thirty,  forty,  fifty  miles  from  the  city,  reporting  to  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      191 

Christians  what  he  had  seen  in  the  city  and  warning 
all  to  flee  for  their  lives.  Many  reached  the  mountains 
and  hid  in  caves,  or  found  their  way  to  distant  parts 
until  the  storm  was  overpast.  Tou  Wei  Ch'eng,  how- 
ever, as  he  went  on  his  way,  was  caught  and  taken  to 
P'ing  Ku  Hsien.  He  was  asked  if  he  was  a  Christian. 
He  replied,  "I  am,"  and  immediately  began  to  preach 
Jesus.  They  beat  him  over  the  head,  but  he  continued 
to  preach.  They  cut  out  his  tongue,  but  he  still 
mumbled  of  Jesus.  They  disemboweled  him,  but  to 
his  last  breath  he  preached  Jesus  and  prayed  for  his 
murderers.* 

Another  boy,  Kan  T'ang,  was  brought  bound  to  Ma 
Fang,  but  would  not  recant,  saying,  "My  pastor  has 
taught  us  never  to  deny  the  Master :  I  can  not  deny 
him."  He  was  accordingly  taken  home,  and,  with  his 
Christian  father  and  mother,  was  put  to  death. 

Wei  Kung  Chin,  a  Christian  north  of  the  city  of 
P'ing  Ku,  said  to  his  daughter  on  the  day  before  he 
died :  "Under  no  circumstances  avenge  my  death. 
I  die  for  my  Lord  and  Master." 

A  METHODIST  HERO 

Tou  Lien  Ming  was  a  student  in  the  Peking  Uni- 
versity. One  of  his  teachers  writes  in  her  report  of 
the  revival  in  the  spring  of  1900:  "Of  all  the  boys 
in  the  Peking  University,  no  one  received  a  greater 
blessing  than  Lien  Ming.  His  face  never  lost  the 
light  that  came  into  it  at  that  time,  and  through  the 
months  that  followed  before  school  closed  he  was  in- 
stant in  season  and  out  of  season." 

Lien  Ming  was  seized  by  Boxers  at  his  home  near 
Tsun  Hua  and  taken  to  a  temple,  where  he  was  re- 

*  See  page  507. 


192      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

quired  to  burn  incense,  and  kotow.  He  refused  with 
great  firmness,  and  the  cry  arose,  *'He  is  an  erh  mao- 
tzu !    He  is  an  erh  mao-tzu  !" 

''I  am  not  an  erh  mao-tzu,"  he  said. 

"What  are  you,  then?" 

The  boy  Hfted  his  head,  and  said  with  slow  impres- 
siveness,  "I  am  a  Christian,  a  follower  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  Then  with  glowing  face  he  began  to 
tell  of  the  love  of  God. 

"Kill  him!  kill  him!"  shrieked  the  mob,  but  some 
objected,  "It  is  not  fitting  to  kill  him  before  the  temple. 
Take  him  to  the  Kill-Foreigner  Street."  So  they  led 
him  forth  to  the  street  which  had  just  received  its  new 
and  horrible  name,  and  as  he  walked  he  still  testified 
to  his  faith,  and  entreated  them  to  listen  to  the  voice  of 
the  true  God.  Their  swords  alone  could  silence  his 
pleadings  with  his  foes  to  be  reconciled  to  God. 

A  M15TH0DIST  HEROINE 

Mrs.  Yang  was  a  delicate,  timid  woman,  living  far 
north  of  Peking.  She  fled  with  her  two  little  girls  to 
relatives  in  the  mountains,  but  was  captured  and  carried 
to  a  temple.  Would  she  renounce  her  faith  and  worship 
the  idols?  No.  Would  she  marry  one  of  the  Boxers 
and  thus  save  her  life?  No.  They  died  together, 
mother  and  daughters. 

"father^  forgive  them''^ 

Mr.  Chiang,  sixty-seven  years  of  age,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  little  village  Church  under  the  care  of  the 
London  mission  in  Peking.  He  sought  refuge  from 
the  Boxers  at  the  Methodist  mission  in  Peking,  where 
all  of  the  missionaries  had  gathered ;  but  his  heart  was 
restless,  for  his  youngest,  best-loved  daughter  was  still 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      193 

in  the  country,  and  he  feared  for  her  safety.  At  last 
he  decided  that  ho  must  search  for  her,  and,  heedless 
of  protestations,  he  went  out  into  the  midst  of  danger. 
Before  he  had  reached  home  a  neighbor  pointed  him 
out  to  a  party  of  Boxers  as  an  "erh  mao-tzu,"  and  at 
once  he  was  made  a  prisoner.  "We  are  about  to  kill 
you;  have  you  anything  to  say?"  "No,"  the  old  man 
replied,  "but  give  me  a  few  minutes  to  pray,"  and  fall- 
ing on  his  knees  he  began,  "Father,  forgive  them." 
The  prayer  was  never  ended,  for  the  cruel  knives  de- 
scended in  quick  succession  on  the  kneeling  figure. 

OTHER  LONDON   MISSION  MARTYRS 

Dr.  Piell  relates  the  following  incidents:  "Our 
young  Ts'ang  Chou  preacher  was  another  victim.  He 
was  seized  in  a  distant  city  by  men  who  had  heard 
that  he  was  a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  This  he  did  not 
attempt  to  deny,  but  stood  boldly  for  his  faith.  They 
cut  off  his  ear,  and  said  mockingly.  'Are  you  still  a 
preacher?'  'Yes,'  he  said,  'I  am.  I'll  preach  to  you 
if  you  '11  listen.'  But  they  would  not  wait  for  more, 
and  killed  him  on  the  spot. 

"Another  man  in  Yen  Shan,  a  colporter,  also 
preached  boldly  to  the  end,  even  to  the  very  men  who 
were  slashing  him  with  their  swords. 

"A  young  and  pretty  schoolgirl,  her  mother,  and 
others,  were  seized  by  the  Boxers.  While  negotiations 
were  going  on  for  ransoming  some  members  of  the 
family,  the  mother  and  daughter  got  away  a  little,  but 
were  soon  noticed  and  pursued.  The  mother  was 
speedily  overtaken  and  killed,  but  the  girl  got  on  a  bit 
further  before  she,  too,  was  overtaken.  Facing  her 
pursuers  boldly  she  said,  'You  can  kill  me  if  you  like, 
but  first  let  me  sing  and  pray.'     In  this,  for  some 

13 


194      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

strange  reason,  they  humored  her,  and  she  sang  a 
hymn,  which  is  only  recorded  in  heaven,  and  then 
knelt  down  to  pray. 

''Our  old  Yen  Shan  gatekeeper  was  another  whose 
death  story  has  been  ascertained.  The  Boxers  told 
him  to  sing,  and  let  them  hear  his  skill  at  it.  There, 
with  the  Boxers,  swords  in  hand,  standing  round,  he 
started  cheerily  in  his  none  too  tuneful  voice — though 
surely  tuneful  in  heaven's  ear — to  sing,  'He  Leadeth 
Me.'  They  applauded,  and  told  him  to  go  ahead  again. 
So  he  sang,  'Heaven  is  my  Home.'  Just  think  of  the 
wonderful  strangeness  of  it  all,  the  nearness  at  that 
moment  of  the  sweetness  of  heaven  and  the  boundless 
darkness  and  cruelty  of  hell !  He  sang  brightly  to  the 
end,  and,  after  a  round  of  applause,  they  did  their 
worst ;  but  they  simply  sent  him  into  the  presence 
of  his  waiting  Lord  to  receive  the  'Well  done'  that 
would  gladden  his  soul  forever." 

WITNESSING  before:  OFFICIALS 

From  the  Presbyterian  Record  we  take  the  follow- 
ing account  of  a  London  mission  martyr: 

"After  the  allied  troops  had  captured  Peking  and 
the  city  of  T'ungchou,  a  few  miles  distant,  the  deserted 
yamens  of  the  latter  place  were  searched  for  evidence 
of  Boxer  intrigues.  A  paper  discovered  among  those 
of  the  city  magistrate  gave  the  official  record  of  the 
trial  of  a  Mr.  Chang.  This  Christian  business  man 
had  been  seized  at  Peking,  stripped  of  his  clothing, 
bound  with  ropes  upon  a  cart,  and  taken  to  the  yamen 
in  T'ungchou.  The  rough  jolting  of  the  cart  had 
caused  the  cords  to  cut  into  his  flesh  so  that  he  was 
already  covered  with  bleeding  wounds  when  brought 
up  for  trial.  In  answer  to  the  questions  of  his  accusers 
he  calmly  and  plainly  stated  his  faith,  explained  how 


CHINA'S  BOOK  Ol^  MARTYRS       195 

he  had  first  heard  the  gospel,  gradually  became  con- 
vinced of  its  truth,  and  finally  accepted  baptism.  Then 
he  said :  'This  is  my  faith.  I  am  ready  to  die.  I  am 
not  afraid  of  death,  and  I  shall  not  give  up  my  religion.' 
The  court  writer  wrote  out  his  statement,  and  Mr. 
Chang  affixed  his  mark — the  impress  of  his  second 
finger.  Then  he  knelt  down  and  began  to  pray,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  more  his  spirit  had  forsaken  the  mangled 
body  and  was  with  God.  With  full  knowledge  that  the 
highest  human  authority  known  to  him  demanded  a 
forsaking  of  his  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  he  yet  calmly 
refused,  and  as  calmly  accepted  the  awful  penalty." 

Dr.  Smith,  in  "China  in  Convulsion,"  writes:  "At 
the  T'ungchou  north  gate  two  boys  of  thirteen  and 
fourteen  years  of  age  were  making  their  escape  into 
the  country  wdicn  the  Boxers  seized  them  to  question 
them.  These  nameless  young  confessors  said  boldly, 
*We  are  of  the  Jesus  Church.'  When  about  to  be 
bound  they  said:  'You  need  not  bind  us.  We  will 
not  try  to  get  away.  Every  step  we  take  to  your 
altar  is  one  step  nearer  heaven.'  And  they  soon  joined 
the  victors  above." 

Miss  Iviu,  a  girls'  schoolteacher,  and  her  widowed 
mother  were  seized.  All  were  surprised  that  she 
showed  no  sign  of  fear.  When  given  her  chance  either 
to  recant  or  die,  she  said:  "I  can  never  deny  my 
precious  Savior.  You  can  kill  me,  but  you  can  not 
compel  me  to  deny  Jesus  and  worship  false  gods." 
Her  body  was  hacked  to  pieces  in  a  shocking  manner, 
and  then  thrown  into  a  dry  well. 

Some  one  had  told  of  a  little  child  who  lifted  a 
fearless  face  to  the  murderers  who  were  about  to  cut 
her  down,  saying,  "Yes,  I  believe  in  Jesus." 

The  faithful  unto  death!  There  are  many  more 
whose  stories  men  mic^ht  write;  there  are  thousands 


196      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

more  whose  dying  words  were  heard  by  no  sympathetic 
friend,  by  no  conscience-stricken  Boxer.  But  He  for 
love  of  whom  they  died  knows  all  of  his  loyal  servants, 
and  the  crown  of  life  has  been  given  them. 

"  They  climbed  the  steep  ascent  of  heaven, 
Through  peril,  toil,  and  pain ; 
O  God !  to  us  may  grace  be  given 
To  follow  in  their  train!" 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  LIVING  WITNESSES 

"When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be  with 
thee;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not  overflow  thee;  when 
thou  walkest  through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be  burned :  neither 
shall  the  flame  kindle  upon  thee." 

THE  STORY  OF  MISS  LI  WEN  CHENG 

[Miss  Li  was  for  many  years  a  student  in  the  girls* 
boarding-school  connected  with  the  Presbyterian  mis- 
sion in  Peking,  where  later  she  did  most  efficient  work 
as  teacher.  Late  in  May,  when  trouble  seemed  immi- 
nent, she  took  a  five  days'  journey  from  Peking  to  her 
home  in  the  village  of  Ho  Chien.  Ten  days  after  her 
arrival  she  heard  of  the  murder  of  two  English  mission- 
aries not  far  away.  Two  days  later  came  the  report 
that  the  Christians  in  the  place  where  the  massacre 
occurred  were  recanting,  and  the  Christians  at  Ho 
Chien,  who,  with  the  exception  of  Miss  Li,  belonged 
to  the  Church  of  England  mission,  were  urged  to 
follow  their  example  before  it  was  too  late.  From  this 
point  we  give  a  translation,  with  abridgments,  of  Miss 
Li's  quaint  letter  to  a  teacher:] 

Those  who  wished  to  recant,  as  soon  as  they  heard 
this  report,  strengthened  their  resolution  to  do  so. 
They  therefore  commissioned  men  to  make  peace  by 
arranging  for  recantation.     They  also  sent  money  to 

197 


198      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  Boxer  ruffians.  At  that  time  we  were  still  worship- 
ing together,  and  frequently  singing  hymns.  There 
was  an  old  man  who  taught  school  in  our  village,  and 
conducted  services  every  Sabbath.  Although  he  knew 
very  well  that  it  was  not  right  to  recant,  yet  because  his 
courage  was  small  he  wished  to  follow  the  others  in 
recanting.  When  he  was  about  to  follow  them,  his 
wife  and  his  fourth  son  went  far  away  from  him. 
We  constantly  exhorted  him,  but  he  was  still  terriWy 
afraid.  Once  he  struck  himself,  saying,  **Surely  I 
ought  not  to  love  this  physical  body."  Once  I  prayed 
with  him,  and  just  as  we  had  finished  prayer  his  face 
exhibited  an  appearance  of  increased  strength.  As  he 
walked  along  the  road  he  had  more  energy.  He  took 
a  solemn  resolution  that  he  would  not  follow  those  who 
had  recanted.  But  when  he  reached  his  home,  his 
oldest  son  cried  and  raged,  and  would  not  hear  of  his 
not  recanting.  Then  his  love  for  his  children  and  his 
love  for  his  own  life  overcame  his  love  for  his  Savior. 
After  this,  those  who  urged  us  to  recant  had  still 
stronger  arguments  to  use.  They  all  said,  "Even  those 
who  wear  the  holy  clothing  have  all  recanted,  have 
listened  to  advice;  and  are  you  still  unchangeable?" 
At  this  time  the  number  of  those  fleeing  from  home 
was  very  great,  and  of  the  female  Church  members  my 
mother  and  myself  were  the  only  ones  left.  When  in 
the  evening  we  met  together  for  worship  the  Church 
members  were  not  more  than  five  or  six,  the  rest,  aside 
from  those  who  had  recanted,  having  all  fled.  The 
outlook  at  that  time  was  about  as  bad  as  it  could  be. 
If  special  comfort  had  not  been  granted,  it  would  have 
been  almost  unendurable.  I  must  testify  that  I  myself 
obtained  peace  beyond  expectation,  and  had  in  my  heart 
unspeakable  joy,  because  there  was  in  that  cup  of  bit- 
terness much  sweetness  mingled.    Moreover,  it  seemed 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      199 

as  though  the  gate  of  heaven  would  certainly  open 
for  us. 

On  the  14th  or  15th  of  June  came  word  that,  within 
three  days,  Pai  Shu  Ch'un,  the  great  leader  of  the 
Boxers,  was  coming  with  followers  to  kill  our  two 
families,  who  refused  to  recant.  At  that  time  many 
of  the  refugees  were  returning  home  because  their  rela- 
tives and  friends  had  not  dared  to  receive  them.  When 
we  had  heard  this  threatening  word,  we  did  not  fear  in 
the  least,  but  determined  that  the  men  should  flee  while 
the  women  all  gathered  in  the  shed. 

Therefore,  on  the  1 6th  day  of  the  month,  I,  with 
my  younger  brother  and  sister,  prepared  graves.  They 
brought  kindling,  and  prepared  to  arrange  it.  We  were 
all  at  the  back  of  the  shed.  If  the  Lord  wished  to 
receive  us  back  to  Paradise,  the  Boxer  ruffians  would 
certainly  go  to  the  rear  looking  for  us.  If  he  wished 
us  still  to  live,  then  they  would  not  go  to  the  rear  to 
look.  In  the  afternoon,  our  graves  were  all  satisfac- 
torily prepared,  and  my  sister  and  I  sat  inside  the 
graves  talking  of  the  happiness  of  dying  for  the  truth. 
Our  hearts  were  filled  with  the  light  from  above,  and 
we  felt  great  joy.  We  resolved  that  when  the  Boxer 
ruffians  started  the  fire  to  burn  us,  we  would  sing  to- 
gether the  hymn,  "Where,  O  Where  are  the  Hebrew 
Children  ?" 

Just  at  this  time  a  man  of  our  own  clan  came  to 
see  us.  When  he  saw  that  we  were  not  afraid,  but 
used  the  peaceful  and  cheerful  expressions  of  our  faces 
as  a  witness,  he  was  amazed  and  said,  "Well,  it 's  per- 
fectly evident  that  you  're  not  afraid."  It  was  not 
very  long  before  Pai  Shu  Ch'un  came,  but  he  brought 
no  others  with  him.  We  all  greeted  him  pleasantly, 
and  prepared  food  for  him,  entertaining  him  as  of  old, 
because  he  was  a  relative  of  ours.    His  appearance  was 


200      CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS 

the  personification  of  pride.  A  number  of  men  ot  our 
village  came  to  see  him.  Although  they  were  of  an 
older  generation,  he  did  not  first  show  respect,  but  those 
who  went  to  see  him  evidently  greatly  reverenced  him. 
No  one  dared  to  dispute  anything  that  he  said.  Their 
treatment  of  him  was  like  the  treatment  of  a  divine 
being.  He  boasted  of  the  Boxer  ruffians'  power  and 
wondrous  deeds.  I  requested  him  to  explain  clearly 
the  principle  of  the  movement ;  but  he  was  not  able  to 
do  so,  simply  saying  that  at  this  time  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  search  for  the  truth. 

I  said,  *'I  think  we  ought  still  to  search  for  the 
truth." 

He  said,  "Wait  until  we  have  utterly  destroyed  all 
the  foreigners  in  China;  we  will  then  go  and  destroy 
all  foreign  countries." 

I  laughed  at  him,  saying,  "I  am  afraid  the  road  is 
rather  long,  and  will  not  be  very  easy  to  go." 

He  was  not  the  least  bit  ashamed,  and  without  a 
sign  of  a  smile  said,  "There  is  no  difficulty  whatever." 

We  said,  "Since  it  is  your  purpose  to  uphold  China 
by  exterminating  foreigners,  why  do  you  also  kill  your 
own  countrymen?" 

He  said:  "We  have  not  shown  you  any  enmity. 
Originally  our  contention  was  only  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church." 

We  told  him  that,  even  should  we  die  for  it,  we 
would  not  recant. 

Although  at  that  time  no  one  disputed  with  us  as 
to  whether  that  which  we  believed  was  true  or  false, 
yet  we  knew  very  well  they  did  not  regard  what  we 
believed  as  true,  because  at  that  time  the  great  Lord 
in  whom  we  believed  seemed  to  be  hiding  his  face  and 
not  caring  for  his  holy  Church,  restraining  his  hand 
from  saving  believers,  and  allowing  the  devil  to  work 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      201 

his  own  evil  will ;  and  it  seemed  as  if  those  bitter  trials 
would  never  have  an  end.  For  this  reason  those  who 
were  outside  of  the  Church  profoundly  believed  in  the 
god  of  the  Boxers,  and  those  who  were  in  the  Church 
forgot  the  Lord  in  whom  they  had  trusted.  This  truly 
was  "the  power  of  darkness."  Nevertheless,  the  Lord 
was  still,  for  his  name's  sake,  bestowing  true  light 
upon  a  few  disciples,  causing  their  faith  steadily  to 
increase.  We  were,  as  it  seemed,  prisoners  condemned 
to  death,  but  in  reality  we  felt  that  we  were  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  King.  Men  thought  that  the  believers' 
lives  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Boxer  ruffians ;  but  in 
reality  man's  life  and  death  were  long  ago  determined 
of  God,  and  no  man  can  change  them.  Although  Pai 
Shu  Ch'un's  purpose  in  coming  was  to  exhort  us  to 
recant,  yet  he  did  not  get  to  the  point  of  even  mention- 
ing it.  Moreover,  he  told  us  that  he  would  protect  us, 
and  not  allow  Boxers  from  other  places  to  come  and 
hurt  us.  As  his  word  was  accepted  by  others,  we 
thought  that  there  would  certainly  be  no  trouble,  be- 
cause he  had  great  authority  among  the  Boxers.  Our 
hearts  felt  very  joyful  in  the  thought  that  we  had  come 
to  the  end  of  our  trial.  I  said :  "We  have  tasted  of 
that  which  Abraham  felt  when  he  came  back  from 
Mount  Moriah.  Although  we  have  not  laid  down  our 
lives  for  the  Lord,  yet  in  his  sight  it  is  the  same  thing, 
because  we  have  certainly  been  willing  to  do  so." 

After  two  or  three  days  we  heard  that  another 
leader  was  not  pleased  with  Pai  Shu  Ch'un,  and  if 
we  still  would  not  recant  he  was  determined  to  come 
and  kill  us.  Then  the  stream  of  those  wlio  exhorted  us 
was  continuous.  My  father  answered  them  with  very 
appropriate  words,  saying :  "You  think  that  you  come 
to  get  us  to  recant  because  you  love  us.  In  truth, 
according  to  the  purest  reason,  you  may  be  reckoned 


202      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

as  more  cruel  than  the  Boxers,  because  they,  if  they 
come,  can  do  no  more  than  kill  the  body,  but  your 
coming  is  to  injure  our  souls."  The  men  of  our  clan 
were  not  at  all  pleased.  My  father  also  said  :  "If 
I  tell  you  of  the  way  in  which  our  Savior  died  for 
us,  you  will  not  understand  it,  but  that  the  missionaries 
died  for  us,  you  will  know.  Moreover,  at  this  time  the 
Savior,  with  these  missionaries,  is  gazing  steadfastly 
at  us  to  see  how  it  will  be  with  us  at  the  end.  How 
can  we  do  this  evil  deed  ?  If  we  do  it,  how  can  we  face 
them  hereafter?" 

On  the  24th  day  of  June  came  men  to  tell  us  to 
escape  quickly,  as  men  were  coming  to  kill  us.  Al- 
though I  did  not  wish  to  go  out,  yet,  as  they  urged  us 
to  go,  we  went  into  the  outside  cellar,  but  still  were  at 
peace  in  our  hearts.  Even  the  children  were  not  afraid. 
Afterward  when  we  heard  that  the  men  were  not  com- 
ing to  kill  us,  we  came  out  and  went  back  home.  We 
slept  until  midnight,  when  my  mother  awoke  us,  say- 
ing: ''Several  tens  of  men  have  just  come  from  the 
south.  It  must  be  that  they  are  going  to  destroy  the 
chapel."  We  arose  and  prayed  and  were  comforted 
in  our  hearts.  Afterward  when  we  learned  that  they 
had  not  come  to  destroy  the  chapel,  we  went  to  sleep 
again.  The  next  day,  early  in  the  morning,  we  heard 
the  sound  of  a  gun,  and  men  came  saying,  "Escape 
as  quickly  as  you  can."  Although  I  did  not  want  to 
go  out,  they  would  not  permit  me  to  remain,  so  we  all 
went.  My  father  went  toward  the  west  into  unculti- 
vated land.  On  that  occasion  I  carried  my  most 
precious  "Daily  Light."  We  had  not  gone  far  from 
the  village  when  I  stopped  under  a  little  clump  of  thick 
trees.  I  did  not  wish  to  go  to  a  distant  place.  My 
father  kept  on  toward  the  west ;  but  I  sat  down  under 
the  trees  to  read  my  book,  and  made  up  my  mind  that 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      203 

I  would  not  lift  my  head,  lest  seeing  the  cruel  faces 
of  the  Boxer  ruffians,  I  might  lose  the  peace  that  was 
in  my  mind.  It  was  not  very  long  before  I  heard  the 
sound  of  footsteps.  I  thought  that  surely  the  Boxers 
had  come,  but  my  heart  was  still  perfectly  at  peace. 
It  neither  throbbed  nor  was  confused,  but  I  did  not  lift 
up  my  head  to  see  who  it  was.  In  truth,  it  was  my 
father,  who  came  to  urge  me  to  avoid  that  place,  be- 
cause several  men  had  seen  me  hiding  there.  So  I 
went  on  to  the  west,  and  again  found  a  little  clump 
of  trees,  and  there  met  my  brother  Yung  Tsai.  We 
two  sat  there,  and  each  declared  the  thought  that  was 
in  his  heart,  feeling  greatly  comforted.  We  looked 
carefully  in  the  direction  of  our  home  to  see  whether 
there  was  smoke  or  not.  We  saw  no  smoke,  but  there 
was  still  the  sound  of  guns.  Afterward  we  heard  that 
the  men  were  not  seeking  to  kill  us,  but  were  simply 
passing  our  village  on  the  road ;  so  we  returned  home. 
As  soon  as  we  entered  the  village,  some  one  purposely 
asked  me  where  I  had  been.  I  answered  in  the  most  nat- 
ural way,  "We  have  been  to  the  west,"  and  looking  at 
the  place  where  the  rushes  and  trees  were  growing, 
I  said,  "That  is  a  beautiful  place,"  and  as  I  spoke  I 
went  on.  They  probably  thought  that  our  position 
was  a  sad  one,  or  a  shameful  one,  but  in  fact  we  counted 
it  as  glory  which  we  were  not  worthy  to  receive. 

That  same  day,  in  the  evening,  some  one  said  again, 
"They  are  coming,  they  are  coming ;  escape  quickly !" 
So  we  went ;  but,  after  all,  they  were  not  coming  to 
kill  us.  With  reference  to  this  running  away,  it  was 
not  a  matter  of  any  consequence.  It  was  only  that,  day 
after  day,  we  heard  the  words  of  those  who  tempted 
us,  which  made  life  hard  to  endure.  Some  of  them 
wept  as  they  exhorted  us,  and  some  were  almost  violent 
as  they  exhorted  us,  continually  saying,  "If  you  two 


204      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

families  die,  how  shall  we  be  able  to  endure  it  ?"  There 
was  also  one  who  said  to  my  father:  "Older  brother, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  heaven.  You  can  not  go 
to  that  place."  When  my  father  heard  this  he  was 
almost  beside  himself,  and  said,  *'If  you  use  this  kind 
of  talk  to  urge  us,  it  is  worse  than  useless."  There 
were  also  some  who  said :  "You  do  n't  need  to  spend 
any  money  in  making  offerings.  All  we  ask  is  that 
you  go  once  to  the  temple,  and  that  will  end  the  whole 
trouble."  We  said:  "If  we  die  for  it,  we  will  not 
recant.  We  do  not  fear  death  at  all ;  the  only  thing 
we  fear  is  recanting."  When  they  saw  that  we  abso- 
lutely would  not  heed  them,  they  all  went  away. 

On  June  26th  it  was  reported,  "They  are  surely 
coming  to-day ;"  so  we  thought  we  certainly  could  not 
live  until  evening.  Nevertheless  we  all  rejoiced  and 
were  in  good  spirits.  We  gave  away  to  friends  and 
relatives  a  number  of  valuable  articles.  I  had  always 
especially  loved  my  watch  and  my  spectacles  and  all 
my  photographs ;  but  at  this  time  I  did  not  regard  them 
as  treasures,  and  gave  them  all  away.  In  the  afternoon 
we  were  told  that  the  Boxers  were  certainly  coming. 
This  news  as  compared  with  previous  reports  seemed 
certain,  so  my  mother  and  the  rest  of  them  prepared 
to  flee.  I  said :  "I  will  not  go,  because  every  time 
they  destroy  a  chapel  they  must  kill  somebody.  If 
they  do  n't  get  a  chance  to  kill  anybody  they  will  not 
be  satisfied,  because  they  know  that  we  certainly  will 
not  recant,  and  perhaps  if  they  kill  me,  one  person,  they 
will  not  be  so  anxious  to  kill  our  whole  family,  because 
the  people  everywhere  say  that  our  family's  not  recant- 
ing is  my  doing."  At  that  time  my  younger  brother 
Yung  Tsai,  and  my  younger  sister  Ts'un  En,  were 
also  in  the  room.  As  soon  as  they  heard  me  speak, 
they  both  said  with  one  voice,  "I  am  not  going  either," 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      205 

so  all  the  rest  went  out.  We  three  each  took  a  copy 
of  the  Bible,  and  sat  in  the  door  of  the  room  to  wait. 
It  was  not  long  before  I  heard  my  father  calling  me 
from  the  top  of  the  house.  I  asked  him  what  he  was 
doing.  He  said^,  "You  three  must  go  to  the  shed  in 
the  west  court."  When  I  thought  about  it,  I  con- 
cluded that  his  advice  was  wise,  because  there  were 
the  graves  which  we  had  prepared  ten  days  before ; 
so  we  three  went  together.  As  we  were  going,  we 
heard  the  sound  of  the  Boxer  ruffians  pounding  on 
the  gate ;  so  we  knew  that  they  really  had  come. 
Nevertheless,  our  hearts  were  not  in  the  least  disturbed 
or  throbbing.  We  got  into  the  graves  and  first  prayed, 
because  that  day  the  wind  was  very  strong  and  our 
mother  and  the  children  out  in  the  open  field  would 
certainly  find  it  hard  to  get  along.  Afterward  we 
talked  about  how  we  would  act  when  the  wicked  men 
came  to  kill  us.  We  made  up  our  minds  that  as  soon 
as  they  saw  us,  I  should  stand  up  and  say  as  clearly 
as  possible,  ''I  gladly  die  for  my  Lord."  As  soon  as 
I  had  finished  speaking  I  would  lay  my  head  on  the 
wood  behind  me  and  wait  for  the  knife.  At  that  time 
we  were  perfectly  happy,  but  my  little  sister  did  not 
say  a  word.  Part  of  the  time  we  read  the  Bible  and 
part  of  the  time  we  talked  of  the  truth,  almost  as  if 
we  hoped  that  they  would  come  quickly,  only  every 
time  I  thought  of  that  sweet  rest  I  felt  that  I  had  not 
yet  come  to  the  time  when  I  ought  to  receive  it.  The 
time  that  we  spent  there  was  not  short.  Then  came 
a  female  Church  member,  and  said :  "The  men  who 
have  come  to  destroy  the  church  were  not  appointed  by 
their  leader  to  come,  but  came  of  their  own  accord  in 
the  hope  of  getting  the  things  in  the  church.  The 
people  of  the  village,  when  they  saw  that  the  men  were 
not  come  from  the  gathering-place  of  the  Boxers,  im- 


2o6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

mediately  sent  word  to  the  Boxer  leader,  who  has 
now  come  and  cut  two  of  the  men  with  his  sword." 
We  had  often  said:  *'If  we  do  not  recant,  when  they 
come  to  destroy  the  chapel  it  may  be  that  they  will 
not  kill  us ;  for  if  the  Lord  does  not  want  us  to  die 
he  is  able,  when  they  are  destroying  the  church,  to 
cause  them  to  quarrel  over  something,  and  have  no 
time  to  kill  us."  So  now,  when  we  heard  this  report, 
we  had  greater  faith  than  ever  in  God's  marvelous 
power.  Therefore  we  prayed  together,  and  gave  thanks 
for  this  great  grace. 

People  again  came  urging  us  to  recant.  This  time 
they  were  exceedingly  urgent,  and  constantly  said : 
"You  do  n't  need  really  to  give  up  the  truth ;  only  have 
one  man  follow  us  to  the  temple  just  once,  when  v/e 
all  kotow.  You  know  that  it  is  simply  because  you 
will  not  recant  that  they  are  not  satisfied,  and  Pai  Shu 
Ch'un  has  ordered  us  to  come  and  plead  with  you." 
That  day  my  m.other  and  my  aunt  became  somewhat 
unsettled  in  their  minds,  and  wanted  to  persuade  my 
father  and  the  rest  to  follow  them.  When  I  heard  their 
words  I  could  scarcely  keep  from  crying.  They  thought 
that  if  they  should  go  and  neither  burn  incense  nor 
kotow,  it  would  not  mean  anything.  I  said,  *'If  we  go 
one  step  in  that  direction,  it  is  just  as  if  we  cried  with 
a  loud  voice,  'From  this  time  I  am  not  a  disciple.'  " 
Yung  Tsai,  Ts'un  En,  and  Jen  Tz'u  were  all  of  one 
mind  with  me;  the  rest  had  a  different  mind.  Our 
two  companies  became  separated  in  heart.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  troubles  we  had  none  of  us  felt  very 
sad ;  but  that  evening  we  all  began  to  cry.  Those 
adults  had  one  heart  and  we  children  had  another. 
They  were  utterly  unwilling  to  follow  us  four,  thinking 
that  our  hearts  were  too  stubborn,  and  we  were  very 
unwilling  to  follow  them,  because  it  was  evidently  not 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      207 

according  to  the  Scripture.  So  it  was  determined  that 
if  the  people  again  urged  us  to  kotow,  or  offer  sacrifice, 
or  do  anything  of  the  kind,  we  positively  would  not 
follow  them,  but  would  only  go  with  them  to  the 
temple  once.  As  I  was  utterly  unable  to  stop  them, 
I,  weeping,  agreed  to  this.  If  the  others  wished  to 
yield  and  do  a  single  other  thing  contrary  to  the 
doctrine,  we  four  would  go  to  the  chapel  to  stay,  and 
there  await  our  death.  At  that  time  the  chapel  had 
not  been  totally  destroyed.  So  the  old  people  said, 
"Let  it  be  so;  if  there  is  anything  further  asked,  let 
us  be  regarded  as  treating  you  unfairly."  It  was  just 
time  for  evening  worship,  and  we  prayed  with  great 
earnestness,  saying,  "If  that  which  we  propose  to  do 
is  a  sin  which  can  not  be  forgiven,  we  pray  the  Lord 
to  keep  us  from  doing  it  by  causing  those  who  have 
been  urging  us  to  change  their  minds."  The  next  day 
they  had,  indeed,  changed  their  minds,  and  required 
us  to  kneel  in  the  temple  and  kotow.  My  father  and 
the  rest  of  them  said,  ''If  you  put  it  in  that  way,  we 
will  not  do  anything  at  all."  There  was  not  one  of 
our  clan  who  did  not  get  angry.  Heretofore  there  had 
been  those  who  had  knelt  before  us  to  implore  us  to 
recant,  but  after  this  they  did  not  even  come  to  see  us. 
To  our  surprise,  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  days, 
we  heard  that  my  elder  brother,  with  his  whole  family, 
was  on  the  way  to  us.  As  soon  as  this  word  came,  all 
the  family  were  distressed  beyond  measure,  as  they 
knew  that  there  was  great  danger  on  the  road.  That 
evening  we  prayed  earnestly  that  if  my  brother's  re- 
turn home  would  not  be  a  help  to  the  family,  the  Lord 
would  not  permit  him  to  come.  I  was  thinking  in 
my  heart  of  all  that  had  happened  and  all  the  grace 
that  we  had  received  during  those  more  than  twenty 
days,  and  was  very  resolute,  but  I  still  feared  that  if 


2o8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

my  brother  should  come,  he  would  change  the  condi- 
tion of  things  at  home.  So  when  I  was  praying  alone, 
I  often  said,  *'If  my  brother's  return  home  will  really 
cause  our  family  to  change  their  determination  not  to 
recant,  I  dearly  wish  that  he  may  die  on  the  road." 
My  teacher  knows  how  I  love  my  whole  family.  On 
July  5th  my  brother's  family  reached  home.  As  soon 
as  the  people  of  our  clan  heard  that  he  had  arrived, 
they  all  came  again,  and  after  this  our  custom  of  wor- 
shiping three  times  a  day  ceased.  My  father  said  to  me, 
"You  need  n't  say  anything  more ;  as  your  elder 
brother  wants  it,  so  it  shall  be."  I  had  said  at  the 
beginning  to  my  uncle,  "If  my  brother  comes  home 
and  wants  to  recant,  we  will  die  together  for  a  witness 
to  the  truth."  My  uncle  had  agreed  to  this.  I  never 
dreamed  that  the  two  families  would  all  follow  him 
in  yielding  to  a  fellow  clansman's  temptation.  When 
it  came  to  this  pointy,  I  had  only  one  thought,  and  it 
was,  "How  can  I  get  away  and  leave  my  home  ?"  After- 
wards I  hoped  that  the  Boxer  ruffians  would  insist 
upon  the  women  also  going  to  worship  in  the  temple. 
In  that  case,  there  certainly  would  be  those  who  would 
be  faithful  unto  death.  The  more  I  thought  the  more 
I  did  not  want  to  leave,  because  I  felt  that  they  were 
using  sinful  means  to  save  the  lives  of  the  two  fam- 
ilies. Moreover,  at  that  time,  I  supposed  that  all  the 
dear  friends  whom  I  knew  in  Peking  were  already 
in  heaven  enjoying  happiness.  There  were  several 
times  when  I  thought,  "Alas!  if  I  seek  death  for  my- 
self, it  will  be  reckoned  as  sin.  If  it  were  not  so,  I 
should  already  have  gone  to  heaven." 

There  is  also  another  matter  which  I  wish  my 
teacher  to  know.  In  December,  when  the  Church 
members  were  all  gathered  together  to  observe  the 
Sabbath,  my  older  brother  conducted  the  service.    This 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      209 

day  was  the  first  time  we  had  not  met  together  for  wor- 
ship. When  the  whole  company  was  reciting  the  Con- 
fession of  Sin,  I  knew  that  there  were  a  number  who 
were  weeping.  Aly  brother  compelled  himself  with 
difficulty  to  lead  the  others  in  continuing  the  recitation. 
Since  that  time  I  have  felt  a  little  comfort  in  my  heart, 
because  since  they  have  repented  in  shame  of  what 
they  did,  they  will  certainly  still  be  able  to  obtain 
mercy. 

A  vagueness  will  be  noted  in  the  last  pages  of  Miss 
Li's  narrative.  She  could  not  bear  to  state  plainly, 
even  to  her  dear  teacher,  that  she  and  two  children, 
too  young  to  be  especially  noticed  by  their  Boxer  clans- 
man, were  the  only  ones  who  did  not  follow  the  crowd 
to  the  temple.  Alone  the  brave  girl  resisted,  not  days 
or  weeks,  but  months  of  temptation.  Not  until  De- 
cember did  relief  come  to  her.  Then  a  brother  made 
his  way  to  Peking  to  tell  of  the  dangers  which  still 
surrounded  her  in  the  remote  village,  and  the  diffi- 
culty which  attended  a  journey  to  Peking.  At  one  end 
of  the  journey  she  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  Chinese 
foes,  at  the  other  she  might  be  beset  by  the  foreign 
soldiers.  A  missionary  friend  obtained  from  Minister 
Conger  a  passport  for  Miss  Li,  typewritten  and 
stamped  with  the  United  States  seal.  Chinese  officials, 
when  they  saw  this  passport,  guarded  her  safely 
through  their  territory.  Twice  during  the  journey 
she  was  obliged  to  show  it  to  foreign  soldiers,  who, 
when  they  saw  the  seal  of  the  United  States,  quickly 
jumped  down  from  her  cart.  So  about  Christmas-time 
she  reached  a  haven  in  Peking,  and  the  storms  which 
for  seven  months  had  been  beating  about  her  were 
ended. 

14 


2IO      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 


I.I  PEN  YUAN  AND  DORCAS 

Mr.  Li  is  a  bright  young  man  who  graduated  in 
May,  1900,  from  the  theological  seminary  at  T'ung- 
chou.  For  several  years  his  vacations  had  been  spent 
in  evangelistic  work  in  the  Peking  mission  of  the 
American  Board  and  its  outstations.  His  wife,  Dorcas, 
was  one  of  the  best  students  of  the  Bridgman  School, 
and  those  who  have  seen  her  sweet,  attractive  face, 
and  the  winsomeness  of  her  tiny  two-year-old  daugh- 
ter, will  understand  better  her  wonderful  deliverances 
from  death.  Mr.  Li's  older  brother  was  a  preacher 
in  the  Presbyterian  mission  in  Peking,  and  his  sister, 
who  was  a  Bible-woman,  is  numbered  with  the  martyrs. 

STORY  TOI.D  BY  LI   PEN  YUAN 

When  the  Boxer  trouble  broke  out  in  June,  1900,  I 
was  in  charge  of  the  Christians  who  for  several  days 
guarded  the  property  of  the  American  Board  in  Peking. 
But  I  took  my  wife  and  little  girl  to  my  brother's  home. 
The  day  I  took  them  over  I  found  my  brother  moving 
from  his  home  into  rooms  belonging  to  the  Presby- 
terian mission.  I  exclaimed,  "Why  do  you  do  this? 
You  are  moving  into  a  firehole."  He  replied,  "We  can 
not  stay  in  our  home;  Boxers  are  just  at  the  mouth  of 
the  alley,  and  our  neighbors  keep  calling  to  them,  'There 
are  erh  mao-tzu  here ;  come  and  kill  them.' " 

On  the  night  of  June  13th  I  was  with  them  at  the 
Presbyterian  mission,  and  we  saw  flames  rising  from 
other  missions  about  three  miles  south  and  east  of  us. 
The  women  and  children  staid  in  the  house;  my 
brother  and  I,  with  one  or  two  others,  climbed  the  roof, 
and  soon  saw  that  a  fire  had  been  started  in  the  Second 
Street  Presbyterian  mission,  less  than  a  mile  away. 
"They  will  soon  burn  this  place,"  we  said.     Just  as 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      211 

we  were  speaking  we  heard  a  knock  at  the  gate,  and 
when  my  brother  opened  it  a  student  from  the  Second 
Street  mission  cried,  "You  must  run  at  once;  regular 
soldiers  are  helping  the  Boxers."  We  knew  then  that 
there  was  no  hoj^c  of  repelling  an  attack  with  the  few 
weapons  in  our  hands ;  but  my  brother  was  very  loath 
to  flee,  saying  that  he  preferred  to  stay  and  be  burned 
to  death  in  the  church.  I  said  to  him,  "This  opportu- 
nity to  escape  has  been  given  to  us  by  God ;  if  this 
scholar  had  not  brought  this  message,  we  should  all 
have  perished  here."  We  then  all  ran  out  from  the 
mission,  and  had  only  gone  as  far  as  the  Lotus  Lake 
when  the  chapel  was  set  on  fire.  Had  we  delayed  five 
minutes  we  could  not  have  saved  our  lives.  At  the 
Lotus  Lake  my  brother  and  I  consulted,  and  decided 
that  it  was  better  to  separate,  as  we  would  be  less 
noticeable  in  smaller  companies,  so  I  went  off  with  my 
wife  and  child.  We  had  no  place  of  refuge,  and  could 
only  wander  from  street  to  street.  Later  in  the  night 
I  hid  Dorcas  and  the  child  in  a  little  alley,  and  I  stood 
guard  at  the  mouth  of  the  alley.  I  had  said  to  the 
child,  "Jung  En,  the  Boxers  want  to  kill  us,  so  you 
must  keep  very  quiet,"  and  she  did  not  make  a  sound. 
Just  then  a  company  of  Boxers  came  along,  and  some 
of  them  started  toward  me.  Not  daring  to  retreat  into 
the  alley  where  my  wife  was  hidden,  I  mingled  with 
the  crowd  on  the  street,  and  followed  on  for  a  time, 
then  slipping  away  from  them  and  avoiding  the  great 
streets,  I  went  from  alley  to  alley,  and  at  daybreak  I 
went  outside  the  city  by  the  Te  Sheng  gate.  After 
several  hours  of  wandering  outside  the  city  I  said  to 
myself:  "I  must  go  back  into  the  city  and  find  my 
wife  and  child.  If  I  find  them,  I  will  try  to  think  of 
some  way  to  save  them ;  if  I  can  not  find  them,  I  do 
not  want  to  live." 


212      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

So  I  went  back  into  the  city,  to  the  alley  where  I 
had  left  them.  They  were  not  there;  but  neither  did 
I  see  any  trace  of  their  dead  bodies,  nor  hear  any  evil 
tidings  about  them.  So  I  set  out  to  look  for  them.  I 
had  supposed  that  the  Methodist  mission  was  burned 
with  the  others;  but,  going  to  that  part  of  the  city, 
I  found  it  still  standing.  There  I  found  my  brother 
and  his  family;  but  he  knew  nothing  of  Dorcas  and 
Jung  En,  nor  of  our  sister  and  her  family. 

Again  I  went  out  into  the  city  streets;  north,  east, 
south,  and  west  I  searched  for  two  days.  Then,  to 
my  great  joy,  I  heard  that  my  wife  and  child  were 
with  other  Christians  hiding  in  the  Southern  City. 
There  I  found  them,  and  took  them  to  the  Methodist 
mission. 

STORY  OF  DORCAS 

When  I  saw  my  husband  swept  along  with  the 
crowd  of  Boxers,  and,  after  long  waiting,  he  did  not 
return  to  me,  I  thought  he  must  be  dead.  At  daylight 
I  asked  a  passer-by  the  way  to  the  Presbyterian  mis- 
sion, and  he  told  me  to  go  west.  I  believed  him,  and 
walked  in  that  direction  with  Jung  En.  He  had  sent 
me  directly  to  the  Boxer  altar  in  the  palace  of  the 
Sixth  Prince.  I  saw  the  empty  space,  then  a  man 
called  out,  "Erh  mao-tzu,  why  are  you  going  to  our 
altar?"  and  immediately  he  seized  and  bound  me. 
Another  Boxer  standing  by  said,  "We  have  n't  our 
knives  with  us ;  let  her  first  suffer  a  day,"  so  the  ropes 
were  loosened  and  I  walked  away.  As  I  went  north 
toward  the  Lotus  Lake,  an  old  lady  came  to  her  door. 
I  was  suffering  greatly  from  thirst,  and  taking  off  a 
ring  and  giving  it  to  the  old  lady,  I  begged  her  for 
a  drink  of  water.  While  I  was  standing  there,  a  woman 
passed  and  screamed  out  to  the  old  lady,  "Why  do  you 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      213 

take  her  to  your  home?  There  are  Boxers  on  both 
sides  of  us  ;  make  her  go  quickly  !"  I  said,  "Do  n't  be 
anxious;  I  will  not  involve  you;  I  will  go."  Then  I 
went  on  the  street  where  the  Presbyterian  mission  had 
stood ;  it  was  all  in  ruins.  I  rested  a  few  moments  by 
the  gate,  then  asked  the  way  to  the  American  Board 
mission.  Going  out  into  the  great  street  I  saw  a  man 
selling  a  drink  made  of  sour  plums,  and  my  little  girl, 
who  was  very  thirsty,  asked  for  some.  As  I  had  no 
money,  I  took  ofif  my  child's  pretty  outside  garment 
and  offered  it  to  the  peddler,  but  he  gave  it  back,  say- 
ing kindly,  "Put  it  on  your  child;  I  don't  want  any 
money." 

We  walked  until  noon ;  then  we  were  so  tired  that 
we  sat  down  to  rest  on  a  bench  in  a  large  gateway. 
While  we  were  there  a  great  crowd  of  Boxers  ap- 
proached from  the  east,  and  cried  out,"This  is  an  erh 
mao-tzu !  cut  her  down  !"  Just  as  they  were  coming  up 
the  steps  the  owner  of  the  place  where  I  was  resting, 
a  very  respectable-looking  man,  came  out  of  his  gate, 
and  taking  in  the  situation  at  a  glance,  he  said: 
"Teacher-brothers,  be  slow  about  moving  your  hands. 
This  is  a  neighbor  of  ours.  She  has  just  come  back 
from  a  temple,  and  is  resting  here."  Believing  his 
words,  the  Boxers  passed  on.  Turning  to  me,  the  stran- 
ger said,  "I  see  that  you  are  a  Christian.  If  you  have 
any  relatives,  I  will  escort  you  to  them."  I  replied, 
"My  relatives  and  friends  are  all  Christians."  He  then 
led  us  into  his  home.-  When  his  wife  heard  the  story, 
she  was  very  unwilling  to  receive  the  refugees,  and 
the  kind-hearted  man  exclaimed :  "Whenever  I  try  to 
do  a  good  deed,  you  hinder  me.  Perhaps  there  is 
some  reason  why  grown  people  should  be  killed,  but 
would  it  not  be  a  pity  for  this  little  one  to  be  slain 
by  Boxers?"    Still  his  wife  insisted,  "It  won't  do;  you 


214      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

must  make  them  go."  Then  the  man  said  to  me,  "1 
will  escort  you  out  to  the  great  street;  it  is  all  that  T 
can  do  for  you."  Before  I  left,  he  insisted  that  I 
should  paint  and  powder  my  face,  so  that  I  would  not 
be  so  easily  recognized  as  a  Christian. 

On  the  street  I  wandered  hither  and  thither  until 
we  were  surrounded  by  a  crowd,  reviling  us  in  horrible 
language.  Just  then  an  old  man  came  along  and  said, 
"What  are  you  making  a  fuss  about  ?  Scatter !"  Then 
he  asked  me,  kindly,  "Where  do  you  want  to  go?" 
"To  Teng  Shih  K'ou,"  I  said,  naming  the  street  on 
which  the  American  Board  mission  stood.  He  said, 
"I  '11  get  a  cart  to  take  you  there,  and  pay  the  fare." 
He  also  bought  some  apricots  for  Jung  En.  At  Teng 
Shih  K'ou  I  dismissed  the  cart  and  looked  around. 
The  mission  buildings  were  all  burned ;  there  was  no 
place  to  go.  I  went  to  a  police  station  near  by,  but  they 
drove  me  away  with  rude  words.  I  went  to  Deacon 
Wan's  home,  and  neighbors  told  me  that  they  had 
fled. 

By  sunset  little  Jung  En  and  I  had  wandered  to 
the  Ch'ien  Gate,  about  a  mile  away,  and  going  through 
into  the  Southern  City,  we  sat  down  again,  surrounded 
by  an  insulting  crowd  of  men  and  boys.  In  this  dire 
extremity,  God  sent  a  friend.  Soon  I  heard  a  cart 
rumbling  by,  and  a  cheery  voice  said :  "Is  n't  this  my 
third  sister?  Get  into  my  cart,  quick."  It  was  Mr. 
Chang,  a  member  of  our  Church,  driving  his  own  cart. 
Once  inside  the  cart  I  felt  safer.  Still  I  had  no  place 
to  go.  So  Mr.  Chang  drove  back  and  forth  through 
the  streets  all  night,  trying  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of 
the  Boxers.  Near  morning  he  drove  into  the  court  of 
a  fodder  shop,  but  the  cart  curtain  was  dropped,  and 
for  a  long  time  no  one  knew  that  we  were  in  the  cart. 
When  we  were  compelled  to  leave,  Mr.  Chang  took 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      215 

me  to  a  place  in  the  Southern  City,  where  a  Christian 
family  had  rented  a  house  and  were  livinj]^,  unknown 
to  their  neighbors.  The  next  day  my  husband  found 
me  there.  It  was  a  joyful  reunion,  after  three  da>s 
of  separation. 

DEACON    HENG 

A  Peking  missionary  in  the  spring  of  1901  wrote 
thus  of  one  who  for  many  years  had  been  a  pillar  in 
the  Congregational  Church : 

"Our  dear  Deacon  Heng  has  returned.  Last 
Wednesday  morning,  in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  dust- 
storm,  there  came  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  there 
stood  the  blessed  man.  I  said  something, — I  do  n't  know 
what, — and  then,  with  tears  running  down  his  cheeks, 
he  lifted  his  hand  to  heaven,  and  said,  'The  clouds  are 
passing  away ;  the  light  is  in  sight ;  praise  God,  you 
are  living.'  He  came  in,  and  was  so  overcome  that  he 
could  not  say  a  word.  He  was  so  covered  with  dust 
that  he  looked  like  a  beggar,  but  he  was  our  true- 
hearted  deacon.  He  was  so  disappointed  not  to  see 
his  pastor. 

"The  night  our  place  was  burned  he  went  to  the 
northwest  part  of  the  city,  near  the  palace  of  the 
Seventh  Prince.  Later  he  went  to  the  official  board 
which  had  charge  of  his  government  work.  There  he 
was  told  that  he  must  get  away,  as  the  situation  was 
growing  more  dangerous,  and  the  government  was 
back  of  the  Boxers,  He  started  to  leave  the  city  by 
the  An  Ting  Gate,  and  found  it  piled  with  the  dead 
bodies  of  Christians,  as  it  was  near  the  Presbyterian 
missions. 

"He  then  went  to  the  home  of  an  uncle  in  the  city, 
who  is  an  official.  He  remained  there  overnight,  and 
the  next  day,  very  early  in  the  morning,  his  uncle  put 


2i6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

on  his  official  robes,  gave  Deacon  Heng  an  official  hat 
and  garment,  and  rode  with  him  four  miles  outside 
the  city.  As  they  went  through  the  Ch'i  Hua  Gate  a 
man  pointed  him  out,  calling,  *Here  is  a  Christian.' 
But  just  at  that  time  there  were  no  Boxers  at  the  gate, 
and  they  hurried  through. 

"He  had  a  fortune-teller's  box,  and  after  his  uncle 
left  him  he  slung  it  over  his  shoulder  and  made  his 
way  to  Mi  Yun  Hsien.  There  he  staid  a  few  days, 
then  came  back  to  the  city  to  see  if  he  could  get  any 
news  of  us.  The  city  was  surrounded  by  Boxers, 
and  he  could  hear  the  firing.  Sick  at  heart,  he  went 
back,  and  made  his  way  to  the  old  home  of  his  family 
in  Manchuria.  He  was  sick  when  he  reached  there, 
and  it  was  over  a  month  before  he  recovered.  There 
he  staid  until  he  heard  that  foreign  soldiers  had  cap- 
tured Peking.  But  it  was  cold,  and  he  decided  to  re- 
main with  his  relatives  until  spring.  He  did  not  know 
that  he  would  find  any  one  alive,  as  he  had  heard  that 
we  were  all  killed.  He  was  quite  overcome  as  he  asked 
after  this  one  and  that  one." 

Deacon  Heng  closed  his  own  written  account  of  his 
return  to  Peking,  thus :  "I  saw  a  notice  in  foreign  let- 
ters on  the  gate,  came  inside,  and  found  myself  in  the 
presence  of  those  whom  I  had  thought  dead.  The 
Lord  has  brought  me  back.  I  am  far  from  perfect. 
The  Lord  has  not  done  teaching  me;  so  he  has  let 
me  live  on,  that  he  may  finish  his  work  in  me." 

''tie;ntsin  hi" 

The  traveler  crossing  the  famous  bridge  Lu  Kou 
Ch'iao,  fourteen  miles  west  of  Peking  on  the  great 
highway,  might  for  several  years  have  noticed  a  sturdy, 
kindly-faced  old  man  standing  guard  over  a  strange 
assortment  of  wares  spread  out  on  the  broad  way  lead- 


TlKNl^lN    1-1 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      217 

ing  to  the  bridge.  Old  pieces  of  iron  or  leather,  second- 
hand shoes,  dust-goggles,  pipes,  and  other  ''junk," 
covered  about  ten  square  feet  of  pavement.  Close  by 
was  a  tiny  house  of  two  rooms,  which  sheltered  the 
old  man  and  his  adopted  son  with  his^wife  and  child. 
If  you  passed  on  Sunday,  you  would  see  the  notice: 
"This  is  Sunday,  and  is  kept  as  a  holy  day.  No  busi- 
ness done."  All  the  junk  would  be  gathered  into  the 
little  house,  and  the  old  man  might  be  found  sitting 
there  with  his  Bible,  or  outside  the  door  explaining  to 
a  crowd  why  he  was  not  doing  business  that  day. 
Often  he  would  walk  the  long  distance  to  Peking,  that 
he  might  meet  with  others  of  God's  people  in  the 
church. 

"Tientsin  Lo"  was  forty-seven  when  the  gospel 
transformed  his  life.  After  his  baptism  in  Tientsin, 
his  wife  and  sons  made  life  in  his  village  home  near 
Tientsin  so  unbearable  that  he  decided  to  leave  them. 
The  sons  were  strong,  and  could  support  their  mother. 
In  parting  he  said  to  his  wife,  'If  you  become  a  Chris- 
tian, come  to  me  or  send  for  me."  Christian  friends 
gave  him  two  or  three  dollars  for  traveling  expenses 
and  to  set  him  up  in  business,  and  his  junk-stand 
at  the  bridge  began  on  a  very  small  scale.  After  eight 
or  nine  years  his  earnest  prayers  for  his  own  family 
were  answered  in  the  conversion  of  his  wife.  Still 
he  did  not  close  up  his  business  at  the  bridge;  and 
there  he  was  living  in  the  summer  of  1900. 

In  June  he  made  an  effort  to  escape  from  the  Boxer 
bands,  starting  off  as  an  egg-peddler.  But  he  was  too 
well  known  to  travel  under  this  thin  disguise.  So  after 
a  few  days  he  said  to  his  adopted  son  and  his  wife 
who  had  fled  with  him:  "You  are  not  Christians. 
I  will  leave  you  here,  and  perhaps  you  may  escape. 
There  's  no  use  in  my  trying  it ;  I  am  too  well  known 


2i8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

everywhere.  I  am  going  back  to  the  bridge  among 
my  neighbors."  Great  was  the  surprise  of  the  West 
End  village  when  Li  appeared  among  them ;  but  they 
said :  "We  have  no  Boxer  band  here ;  stay  and  we  will 
protect  you.  You  can't  go  to  Peking,  and  your  house 
has  been  torn  down  already."  The  bully  of  the  vil- 
lage said:  "We  have  never  been  special  friends,  but  I 
know  about  you  and  will  take  care  of  you.  I  can  do  it 
if  you  do  n't  show  yourself,  for  we  all  know  that  you 
are  a  good  man." 

For  several  days  the  bully  hid  Li  in  his  home ;  but 
Boxers  from  other  villages  heard  of  it,  and  came,  de- 
manding that  he  be  surrendered  to  them.  The  bully 
saw  that  Li  could  not  be  concealed,  so  he  called  to- 
gether the  leading  men  of  the  village,  and  said,  "We 
must  get  up  a  Boxer  band  at  once."  "Just  as  you 
say,"  they  responded.  "All  right,"  he  continued,  "but 
our  band  will  be  different  from  the  rest.  It  is  formed 
for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  Christian  Li,  and 
our  own  village;  it  is  not  to  burn  and  kill."  So  they 
established  an  altar,  and  kept  Li  in  the  rooms  just 
behind  it.  But  soon  the  East  End  Boxers,  who  were 
the  real  article,  heard  of  it,  and  came  to  the  West 
End  albar.  "Whom  are  you  hunting  for?"  asked  Li's 
protectors.  "For  Tientsin  Li."  "What!  that  good 
fellow?  Now,  look  here.  You  know  that  man  whom 
you  caught  last  night ;  he  was  a  genuine  blood-smearer, 
and  you  let  him  go  scot  free.  We  have  found  out 
all  about  him.  Now,  you  catch  him  again  and  settle 
his  affairs,  then  we  '11  talk  about  this  good  man  Li." 
So  on  one  pretext  after  another,  with  no  scruples 
against  lying,  Li's  "Boxer"  friends  protected  him  sev- 
eral days  longer.  But  finally  all  excuses  failed,  and 
they  became  very  sad.    Li  said :  "I  '11  leave  you ;  if  I 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      219 

stay  you  may  lose  your  lives  as  well  as  I.  I  '11  go 
and  die;  that  doesn't  matter;  a  Christian  can  die." 
"No,"  they  said,  "we  are  ready  to  give  our  lives  for 
you."  But  soon  the  leaders  came  to  Li,  saying:  "It 's 
no  use ;  we  can't  save  you  much  longer ;  but  we  have 
arranged  it  so  that  you  will  not  be  tortured,  and  you 
will  have  a  decent  burial.  When  it  comes  to  the  last 
extremity  we  will  give  you  a  signal,  and  then  you  take 
this  opium  pill.  In  half  an  hour,  when  you  are  dead 
asleep,  we  will  bring  out  your  body,  smeared  with 
blood,  as  proof  that  we  have  killed  you.  Then  wc  will 
buy  you  a  good  coffin."  "No,"  he  replied.  "A  Chris- 
tian is  n't  afraid  to  die,  but  it  is  a  sin  to  kill  one's  self. 
I  '11  go  out  to-night,  and  wherever  I  'm  caught,  I  '11 
die.  It  will  not  be  your  fault."  "Where  will  you  go? 
Home?  We  will  give  you  a  certificate  that  will  take 
you  through  the  camps,  giving  you  food  and  lodging 
among  the  Boxers  until  you  come  to  places  where  you 
are  known."  At  midnight  he  started  on  his  flight,  but 
had  gone  only  a  short  distance  when  he  saw  a  friend 
named  Kuo  standing  at  his  front  gate.  "Are  n't  you 
in  the  Boxer  camp?"  exclaimed  Kuo  in  surprise.  "I 
was,  but  I  could  n't  stay  longer."  "Well,  then,  hide 
here ;  no  one  comes  here."  He  hid  in  a  room  in  a  back 
court  for  nearly  a  month,  but  one  day  when  he  had 
come  out  for  a  breath  of  air  he  was  seen  and 
recognized. 

Soon  a  friend  from  another  village  came  to  warn 
him  that  the  Boxers  were  coming  in  a  day  or  two. 
Then  came  seventeen  days  of  hiding  in  cornfields,  and 
the  Boxers  searched  for  him  in  vain.  Kuo  sometimes 
took  food  to  him,  and  through  the  scorching  heat  and 
the  drenching  rains  the  old  man  lay  in  his  lonely  hiding- 
place.     During  those  days  many   Scripture  passages 


220      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

which  he  had  never  understood  before  came  to  him  full 
of  meaning.  *'God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their 
eyes,"  and  other  promises,  grew  doubly  precious. 

One  day,  as  he  lay  in  the  cornfield,  he  was  startled 
by  hearing  Kuo's  voice  calling:  "Come  out.  A  great 
foreign   army   has   come   to   Peking." 

The  tables  were  turned  now.  Before  many  days 
passed  the  leading  men  of  the  East  End  whence  Li's 
most  bitter  enemies  had  come,  hunted  him  up  and  be- 
sought him  to  devise  some  means  of  protecting  the 
place  from  the  ravages  of  the  foreign  soldiers.  To  go 
to  Peking  was  then  considered  a  most  dangerous  enter- 
prise, and  Li  had  little  hope  of  accomplishing  his  mis- 
sion, for  he  thought  that  all  of  the  foreigners  whom 
he  knew  in  Peking  had  been  killed.  But  he  had  too 
much  of  the  spirit  of  his  Master  to  wish  to  see  his  ene- 
mies suffer,  so  he  started  at  once  on  his  mission  of 
intercession.  Four  of  the  leading  men  of  the  place 
accompanied  him  to  the  gate  of  Peking,  but  did  not 
dare  to  go  further.  At  the  gate  stood  stalwart  Sikhs, 
with  their  fierce,  dark  faces  and  strange  turbans.  Li's 
heart  beat  fast  with  fear  as  he  walked  past  them  into 
the  war-desolated  city.  As  he  walked  on  through  the 
almost-deserted  streets,  he  saw  a  cart  coming  toward 
him,  and  as  it  drew  near  he  recognized  the  three  men 
in  it  as  fellow  Church  members.  Great  was  his  sur- 
prise, for  he  thought  that  all  Christians  in  the  city 
had  been  killed.  Soon  one  of  the  men  leaped  down 
from  the  cart  and  grasped  Li's  hand,  while  the  tears 
of  all  fell  fast.  "What,  Li,  you  alive?  You  were 
the  one  person  who  could  not  possibly  be  saved !"  Li 
asked,  "Are  there  any  more  Christians  alive?  Where 
do  you  live?  Are  the  missionaries  alive?"  When  his 
eager  questions  were  answered,  he  exclaimed,  "Great 
joy !"  and  his  heart  overflowed  with  thankfulness. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      221 

He  at  once  went  to  Dr.  Ament  with  his  plea  for 
protection  for  Lu  Kou  Ch'iao.  Such  was  tlie  state  of 
disorder  that  it  was  more  than  two  weeks  before  he 
could  get  back  to  the  bridge  and  assure  those  who 
feared  that  he  would  wreak  vengeance  upon  them  that 
he  had  no  thought  of  revenge.  He  found  the  people 
in  great  distress,  but  with  the  help  of  missionaries 
he  succeeded  in  getting  rice  for  them  from  Peking. 
He  helped  friend  and  foe  alike,  and  now  that  days  of 
peace  have  come,  instead  of  taking  up  his  old  business 
he  has  turned  to  work  which  gives  him  more  oppor- 
tunity to  preach  the  gospel  which  he  loves, — Bible-sell- 
ing. He  has  done  great  good  among  the  Christians 
by  teaching  forgiveness  of  enemies,  both  by  precept 
and  example,  and  has  himself  experienced  the  Christ- 
like joy  of  such  forgiveness. 

By  his  consistent  and  helpful  Christian  life  he  has 
won  many  believers  at  Lu  Kou  Ch'iao,  which  is  now 
one  of  the  most  promising  outstations  of  the  American 
Board  mission  in  Peking. 

U  ch'ao  kuei 

I  was  on  my  way  back  from  the  mountains  where 
my  wife  and  two  of  my  children  had  fled  for  refuge, 
and  one  afternoon  I  stopped  to  rest  in  a  village  a  little 
over  a  mile  from  Fu  Ho.    A  man  came  up  and  asked : 

"What  are  you  doing  here?" 

"I  am  just  resting." 

He  looked  suspiciously  at  the  little  bundle  in  my 
hand.  "If  you  are  a  well-poisoner,  we  do  n't  want  you 
around  our  village." 

While  he  was  talking  a  company  of  fifty  or  more 
Boxers  came  up.  I  rose  deliberately,  took  up  my 
bundles  and  walked  off,  trying  to  look  unconcerned, 
and  not  seem  to  avoid  them. 


222      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

The  leader  called  out,  ''Do  n't  go." 

"Why  not?"  I  said,  looking  surprised. 

"You  know  very  well  why ;  you  have  poisoned  any 
number  of  people.  There  's  no  use  in  your  running. 
You  '11  be  found  out  and  killed  wherever  you  go." 

By  this  time  the  Boxers  had  surrounded  me,  and 
I  heard  the  ominous  words,  "Sacrifice  him  at  the  altar." 

I  said :  "Sacrifice  me  at  your  altar  if  you  will.  I 
am  not  afraid.  But  what  proof  have  you  that  I  have 
poisoned  wells?" 

Then  they  searched  me,  every  fold  of  my  girdle, 
my  garters,  my  stockings,  looking  for  a  tiny  package 
of  deadly  powder.  Nothing  was  found.  The  leaders 
talked  aside  in  low  tones.  Some  one  exclaimed,  "Bind 
him,  and  throw  him  into  the  river."  Several  looked  as  if 
they  longed  to  carry  out  the  threat,  but  they  must  wait 
for  orders  from  their  chief.  By  this  time  there  were  sev- 
eral hundred  spectators,  among  whom  were  a  few  men 
whom  I  knew ;  but  no  one  dared  to  come  forward  and 
plead  for  me.  At  last  the  leaders  decided  to  take  me 
to  their  headquarters  at  Fu  Ho.  There  at  least  two 
hundred  Boxers  congregated,  and  a  great  crowd  be- 
sides. They  tied  my  hands  and  queue  to  a  large  tree 
in  a  cemetery.     I  felt  the  cold  steel  on  my  neck. 

"I  will  give  this  body  to  you,"  I  said,  "but  not  my 
soul.  I  am  willing  to  die.  But  is  n't  it  unjust  to  kill 
a  man  against  whom  you  have  proved  nothing  ?" 

The  Boxers  stood  perplexed.  A  leader  came  for- 
ward and  struck  my  forehead  four  times  with  the  palm 
of  his  hand.  "There  is  no  cross  on  his  forehead," 
he  said,  looking  more  puzzled  than  ever.  Again  they 
held  a  parley.  A  Boxer  swaggered  up  and  held  his 
sword  to  my  throat,  saying:  "We  still  suspect  that  you 
are  a  well-poisoner.  But  you  've  such  a  strong,  splen- 
did body.    What  a  pity  !" 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      223 

The  crowd  was  full  of  people  who  knew  me.  Just 
then  a  man  stepped  near  me,  sayinj^:  "Isn't  this  Li 
Ch'ao  Kuei  ?  Why  do  you  want  to  kill  him  ?  I  Ve 
known  him  from  childhood — a  good,  honest  fellow.  Let 
him  go."  The  scales  were  turning  in  my  favor.  Soon 
my  bands  were  loosed.  Stepping  off  a  few  spaces  I 
turned  and  made  them  a  low  bow,  thanking  them  for 
sparing  my  life.  As  I  walked  on,  I  saw  the  crowd 
dispersing. 

STORY  OF  YANG  TE  CH'eNG 

I  joined  my  mother  and  brother  at  Yao  Shang, 
were  they  were  living  hidden  away  in  a  little  room. 
It  was  reported  that  we  were  there,  and  soon  the  Box- 
ers came  to  hunt  us  down.  It  was  about  noon.  While 
they  were  searching  the  main  buildings,  we  three 
slipped  unseen  into  a  small  back  court  and  ran  for 
our  lives.  No  one  pursued  us.  My  mother,  weary 
of  being  hunted  from  place  to  place,  started  with  Te 
Jui  toward  our  Fu  Ho  home,  and  I  went  back  to 
Yao  Shang.  The  Boxers  had  dispersed,  but  my  rela- 
tives there  were  so  terrified  that  they  refused  to  let 
me  stay.  Again  I  turned  toward  Fu  Ho.  When  I  had 
gone  half  way  I  came  suddenly  upon  a  company  of 
Boxers,  who  immediately  caught  me  by  my  queue  and 
dragged  me  along  with  them.  I  discovered  that  they 
had  another  prisoner,  a  ten-year-old  boy  named  Hu, 
from  a  village  near  Fu  Ho.  They  had  just  killed  his 
mother  and  burned  his  home,  and  they  told  him  that 
they  were  taking  him  to  Fu  Ho  to  kill  him.  I  heard 
them  talking  about  me.  "We  '11  not  kill  him  here. 
Take  him  on  to  Fu  Ho,  and  decide  there  what  is  to 
be  done  with  him." 

I  thought  there  was  no  hope  of  living,  but  no  fear 
came  to  my  heart.     As  they  led  me  along  I  prayed, 


224      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"Lord,  save  my  life  if  it  be  thy  will ;  if  not,  take  my  soul 
to  heaven."  As  we  entered  Fu  Ho  we  passed  a  house 
where  a  Christian  man  and  woman  lived.  A  Boxer 
said :  "There  are  some  erh  mao-tzu  here  who  have  n't 
been  killed  yet.  Let 's  bring  them  out  and  kill  the 
whole  lot  together."  As  they  went  in  they  bound  us 
two  boys  to  trees  in  a  temple  yard  close  by,  tying  our 
hands  and  queues  behind  us  to  the  tree.  Soon  the 
Boxers  came  out  with  their  bloodstained  swords. 
They  had  not  found  Mr.  Hsii  at  home,  but  they  left 
Mrs.  Hsii  dead  in  her  yard.  An  immense  crowd  of 
Boxers  and  others,  not  less  than  a  thousand,  gathered 
about  us  as  we  stood  tied  to  the  trees.  I  recognized 
many  familiar  faces.  A  neighbor  stepped  forward, 
saying :  "You  all  know  this  Yang  Te  Ch'eng.  All  his 
life  he  has  lived  in  our  midst,  and  has  n't  he  been  the 
best  kind  of  a  boy?  Why  do  you  want  to  kill  him? 
I  '11  go  security  that  he  '11  do  nothing  bad."  Several 
other  neighbors  made  the  same  promise ;  my  bonds 
were  loosed,  and  I  was  free.  But  my  poor  little  com- 
panion remained  tied  to  a  tree  until  eleven  o'clock  that 
night,  when  he  joined  his  martyred  mother. 

I  did  not  know  where  my  mother  and  brother  were 
hidden  away,  but  the  Boxers  found  them  the  next  day 
in  the  house  of  a  neighbor,  near  the  ruins  of  our  home. 
Te  Jui  lay  asleep  when  they  entered.  The  Boxer 
leader  said,  "We  have  let  his  brother  live ;  we  'd  better 
spare  him,  too."  They  said  to  my  mother,  "Are  you 
a  Christian  ?"  "I  am,"  she  replied.  Then  they  dragged 
her  into  the  yard  and  killed  her.  Still  Te  Jui  slept 
peacefully,  not  knowing  that  he  was  an  orphan. 

THE   T'uNGCHOU    POSTMASTER 

Mr.  Ho,  the  T'ungchou  postmaster,  when  the 
trouble   became   serious   in   the   city,    committed    his 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      225 

mother,  his  wife,  and  his  little  girl  to  the  care  of  his 
father-in-law,  who  was  not  a  Christian,  and  who  as- 
sured Mr.  Ho  that  they  would  be  safer  without  his 
companionship.  Mr.  Ho  himself  remained  faithful  to 
his  public  trust  until  Hoxcrs  broke  into  the  post- 
office  and  commenced  their  work  of  destruction.  Then 
he  escaped  by  a  back  door  to  report  to  his  superior  in 
Peking,  leaving  almost  immediately  to  find  a  safer 
refuge  far  away  in  Shanghai. 

When  he  left  he  had  little  anxiety  for  his  family ; 
but  when  he  heard  how  Christians  were  being  hunted 
down  in  every  hiding-place,  and  months  passed  with- 
out bringing  him  any  tidings  of  them,  despair  filled 
his  heart. 

Long  and  weary  were  the  wanderings  of  mother, 
wife,  and  child ;  for  the  relatives  who  first  harbored 
them  could  not  long  do  it  in  safety.  Once  they  were 
actually  in  the  hands  of  their  foes,  and  more  than 
once  God  saved  them  as  by  a  miracle.  Then  the  for- 
eign soldiers  came,  and  other  women  fled  in  terror ; 
but  the  postmaster's  pretty  wife  said,  "These  ar;^  sol- 
diers from  Christian  lands ;  I  do  not  fear  them."  One 
day,  leading  her  beautiful  child  by  the  hand,  she 
walked  beside  a  highway  thronged  with  Sikhs ;  but 
they  were  marching  with  their  British  officers,  and 
no  one  harmed  her.  Later  she  knew  that,  even  among 
soldiers  from  Christian  lands,  there  were  some  to  fear. 
Boxers  still  threatened  them,  and  only  one  refuge  was 
accessible.  This  was  the  village  of  Chia  Chia  T'uan, 
not  far  from  T'ungchou,  where  a  large  body  of  Cath- 
olic Christians  had  for  two  or  three  months  resisted 
all  the  attacks  of  the  Boxers.  Here  they  found  a 
shelter  until  missionaries  in  Peking  heard  that  they 
were  there,  and  in  October  sent  a  rescue  party  to  take 
them  to  Peking. 

15 


226      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Many  more  weeks  passed  before  they  knew  that 
Mr.  Ho  had  escaped  to  Shanghai.  When  he  heard 
that  they  were  still  living,  he  heard  also  that  a  baby 
boy  was  with  the  other  loved  ones  waiting  to  welcome 
him  home.  Of  all  the  family  reunions,  perhaps  none 
was  happier  than  this ;  not  one  missing,  and  the  new 
little  life  added  to  the  circle. 

AN  INGENIOUS  HUSBAND 

His  wife  had  been  a  schoolgirl  in  the  London  mis- 
sion in  Peking,  but  he  was  not  a  Christian.  How 
could  he  save  the  precious  lives  of  his  wife  and  baby? 
Finding  an  unfrequented  spot  by  some  ruins,  he  con- 
trived, with  the  fallen  brick,  to  build  a  tiny  pen  four 
feet  long,  four  feet  broad,  and  six  feet  high,  which 
looked  Hke  a  part  of  the  ruin.  After  his  wife  and 
baby  had  stolen  inside  unobserved,  he  bricked  up  the 
hole  by  which  they  had  entered,  leaving  only  a  little 
aperture  through  which  he  could  pass  food  and  water. 
In  this  dark,  close  cell  where  she  could  not  stretch 
out  her  weary  limbs  when  she  lay  down,  the  suffering 
woman  spent  six  hot  summer  weeks.  Her  husband 
came  by  stealth  to  her  hiding-place  to  bring  her  food ; 
but  often  a  day  passed  without  a  visit,  and  hunger 
and  thirst  were  added  to  the  sufferings  of  mother  and 
child.  When  the  danger  was  over  and  again  the  sun- 
light fell  on  the  poor  baby's  face,  it  was  thin  and  pale, 
and  soon  the  little  life  ebbed  away.  But  the  mother 
survived  the  terrible  experience  in  that  prison  cell. 

ESCAPING  BY  THE  PAYMENT  OE  EINES 

Hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  escaped  slaughter 
by  paying  tribute  to  the  Boxers.  "All  that  a  man  hath 
will  he  give  for  his  life."  In  some  cases  the  ransom 
demanded  was  so  heavy  that  Christian  families  be- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      227 

came  homeless  beggars ;  but  in  some  regions  a  smaller 
sum  satisfied  the  cupidity  of  the  Boxers  or  officials. 

In  Manchuria  a  colporteur  named  Kang  was  caught 
by  yamen  men  who  threatened  to  cut  off  his  head. 
He  said :  ''Well,  if  you  are  going  to  kill  me,  I  am  ready 
to  die.  I  believe  in  Jesus,  and  know  what  comes  after 
death.  But  if  you  spare  my  life,  you  can  take  all  the 
money  I  have  got."  In  the  end  he  succeeded  in  re- 
deeming his  life  by  paying  only  a  few  dollars.  Noth- 
ing daunted  by  this  experience,  he  went  around  the 
district  exhorting  Christians  to  be  faithful  to  their 
Lord,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  tear  down  pictures 
of  the  kitchen  god  which  some  of  them  had  posted  up. 

In  the  Ilai  Ch'eng  region,  in  Manchuria,  a  deacon 
named  Ts'ai  was  seized  by  Boxers  and  tortured  by  fire. 
They  threatened  him  with  death  if  he  did  not  renounce 
his  faith.  He  counted  his  faith  dearer  than  his  life.  He 
was  then  taken  to  the  Boxer  leader  and  sentenced  to 
death  if  he  still  refused  to  recant.  He  was  prepared 
for  execution.  The  sword  was  raised  twice,  and  still 
he  refused  to  recant.  Then  the  leading  men  in  his 
village,  none  of  whom  were  Christians,  came  and  knelt 
before  the  Boxers,  promising  to  pay  a  fine  if  his  life 
was  spared.  His  bonds  were  loosened,  and  he  still 
lives  to  witness  to  the  power  of  God's  outstretched  arm. 

sa\i:d  bv  cmxicsK  omciAr.s 

While  many  officials  showed  great  zeal  in  executing 
the  edicts  commanding  that  Christians  who  would  not 
renounce  their  faith  and  leave  the  foreigners  should  be 
put  to  death,  a  few  had  the  courage  to  protect  those 
whom  they  knew  to  be  loyal,  obedient  subjects.  More 
than  one  instance  is  recorded  where  an  official  insisted 
upon  testing  the  claims  of  the  Boxers  that  they  pos- 


22^      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

sessed  supernatural  powers,  and  that  their  charmed 
bodies  feared  neither  bullet  nor  sword.  We  give  the 
stories  of  three  whose  lives  were  saved  by  officials. 

Thirty  miles  south  of  Tientsin,  at  the  Ch'ing  Hai 
station  of  the  American  Board,  lived  the  evangelist 
Chang  Yen  Kuang  with  his  young  bride.  The  mis- 
sionaries in  Tientsin  sent  a  cart  to  bring  them  to  a 
place  of  greater  safety,  but  it  was  too  late ;  all  the  roads 
were  patroled  by  Boxers.  God  provided  protection  in 
his  own  way.  The  highest  official  in  the  place  knew 
the  young  preacher,  and  honored  him.  *'He  is  differ- 
ent from  the  Roman  Catholics,"  he  said.  "The  'Jesus 
Church'  has  never  interfered  in  law  suits."  So  he  sent 
for  Mr.  Chang  to  come  to  his  own  yamen  to  live,  and 
sent  his  young  wife  to  her  heathen  home  in  another 
place.  He  sealed  up  the  chapel  doors  with  his  official 
seal,  and  for  a  time  succeeded  in  keeping  the  Boxer 
organization  out  of  the  territory  controlled  by  him. 
But  they  got  the  upper  hand  for  a  few  days,  and  while 
they  were  running  riot  the  official  concealed  Mr.  Chang 
in  an  out-of-the-way  place  in  a  constable's  house.  Later 
he  succeeded  in  capturing  two  Boxer  leaders,  and,  after 
killing  one  and  exiling  another,  he  restored  quiet  in 
his  region.  So  Mr.  Chang  lived  in  peace  in  the  of- 
ficial's yamen  until  the  foreign  troops  came,  when  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  return  the  kindness  of  his  pro- 
tector by  interceding  for  him  with  the  foreign  offi- 
cers. 

Two  women  and  a  ten-year-old  girl  belonging  to 
the  English  Baptist  mission  of  Tai  Chou, .  Shansi, 
were  hiding  in  an  old  graveyard,  when  they  were  dis- 
covered by  the  Boxers.  A  friend  rushed  to  the  city 
and  informed  the  Men  Shang.  This  official,  without 
waiting  for  his  horse,  hurried  out  on  foot  with  his  at- 
tendants, rescued  the  women,  and  arrested  the  Boxer 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      229 

leader.     He  was  too  late  to  save  the  life  of  the  child, 
who  soon  died  from  her  injuries. 

Dr.  Edwards  states  that  the  number  of  Christians 
killed  at  Tai  Chou  would  have  been  much  greater  had 
it  not  been  for  the  energetic  action  of  the  Men  Shang. 
Three  men  were  captured  by  Boxers,  and  taken  to  a 
temple,  where  the  soles  of  their  feet  were  burned  with 
hot  irons  to  prevent  their  running  away ;  then  they 
were  taken  in  a  cart  into  the  city,  where  they  were 
to  be  tried  by  the  Boxer  chief.  The  Men  Shang  hav- 
ing heard  of  what  was  taking  place,  waited  until  they 
were  passing  the  yamen,  then  he  rushed  out  with  three 
soldiers,  rescued  the  three  men,  and  kept  them  in  the 
yamen  till  the  trouble  was  over.  At  other  times  he 
saved  the  lives  of  seven  Christians,  himself  undertak- 
ing the  responsibility,  as  his  chief  appears  to  have  been 
a  man  without  any  stamina. 

LI  PAl's  DELIVERANCES 

[The  story  of  Li  Pai's  devotion  to  his  missionary 
friends  has  been  given  in  Chapter  III.  Below  are 
recorded  in  his  own  words,  as  taken  down  by  Dr. 
Edwards,  four  narrow  escapes  on  his  journey  from 
Shansi  to  northern  Chihli:] 

My  destination  was  not  reached  till  August  25th, 
and  by  that  time  I  was  very  thin  and  weak.  Four 
times  during  that  journey  I  had  been  recognized  and 
came  near  losing  my  life.  Had  it  not  been  for  God's 
mercy,  I  should  not  be  here  to  tell  the  story.  The 
first  time  I  was  in  danger  was  on  August  7th.  When 
passing  through  a  large  village  I  was  recognized  by  one 
man  as  a  Christian.  He  immediately  pounced  upon  me, 
bound  my  hands,  and  told  the  villagers  I  was  an  "erh 
mao-tzu."  He  took  me  to  the  village  temple  and  beat 
the  big  bell,  thus  calling  all  the  villagers  together.    He 


230      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

told  them  I  was  a  Christian,  and  ought  to  be  killed. 
But  no  one  took  his  side,  and  some  said  that  whether 
I  was  a  Christian  or  not  was  nothing  to  them.  ''Very 
well/'  he  said,  "if  nothing  to  you  I  will  myself  take 
him  to  Shou  Yang,  and  hand  him  over  to  the  mag- 
istrate." With  that  he  led  me  outside  the  village,  but 
suddenly  turned  around,  threw  down  the  rope,  and 
said  to  me,  "Go."  I  think  he  was  chagrined  because 
no  one  else  sided  with  him.  That  same  afternoon  I 
was  passing  through  a  village  and  stooped  down  to 
drink  from  a  well.  Some  people  saw  me  and  rushed 
towards  me,  accusing  me  of  putting  poison  in  the  wa- 
ter. Again  I  was  bound,  and  they  took  me  to  the  vil- 
lage temple  and  discussed  what  should  be  done  to  me. 
Some  said,  "Bury  him  alive;"  others  said,  "No,  let  us 
take  him  to  the  nearest  official."  At  last  an  old  man 
came  along  and  said,  "We  don't  want  to  kill  anybody 
here;  and  if  you  take  the  man  to  the  yamen  you  will 
have  to  spend  money.  Bring  him  to  my  house,  and 
we  will  make  him  drink  water  from  that  well  every 
day,  and  then  we  shall  know  if  he  has  put  poison  in 
it."  To  this  they  agreed,  and  he  took  me  to  his  house, 
where  I  staid  till  the  nth.  During  this  time  he  treated 
me  very  well.  He  was  a  talkative  old  man,  and  I  had 
many  opportunities  of  explaining  to  him  why  the  Chris- 
tians were  hated,  and  in  this  way  I  was  able  to  preach 
to  him.  When  he  let  me  go  on  the  nth,  he  gave  me 
a  few  small  loans  to  help  me  on  my  journey.  Two  days 
later  I  was  again  in  great  jeopardy ;  for  in  the  morning 
I  was  recognized  in  a  village  where  I  had  been  some 
time  before  selling  books.  I  was  again  bound  and  the 
crowd  which  gathered  on  the  street  discussed  how  they 
should  kill  me.  One  said,  "We  have  no  sword."  Others 
said,  "We  have  our  sickles."  "That  will  do,"  they 
said,  and  they  were  leading  me  outside  the  village, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      231 

when,  to  my  surprise,  they  one  by  one  dropped  behind, 
until  (^iily  the  man  who  had  the  rope  which  was  round 
my  neck  was  left.  Looking  around  and  finding  himself 
alone  with  me,  he  threw  down  the  rope  and  ran  back 
as  fast  as  he  could,  while  I  was  allowed  to  go  on  in 
peace. 

lUit  my  troubles  for  that  day  were  not  over.  I  re- 
membered that  in  the  neighborhood  lived  a  man  whom 
I  had  once  employed  as  a  shepherd.  If  I  could  find 
him,  I  thought  he  would  be  willing  to  aid  me.  I  found 
him  that  afternoon ;  but,  to  my  dismay,  as  soon  as  he 
saw  me  he  called  out  to  his  fellow-villagers,  "The  erh 
mao-tzu  has  come."  He  then  told  them  that  I  had  led 
many  foreigners  into  Shansi  who  had  killed  many 
Chinese.  They  bound  my  hands  behind  me,  and  after  a 
time  tied  m.c  up  by  my  thumbs  to  a  beam,  and  kept  me 
there  all  that  night,  while  they  discussed  whether  they 
should  kill  me.  In  the  morning  another  old  man  again 
pleaded  my  cause,  and  suggested  that  they  should  let 
me  go.  To  this  they  agreed  if  I  would  write  a  paper 
guaranteeing  that  none  in  the  village  should  die  because 
of  my  visit !  I  said  that,  as  I  could  not  guarantee  my 
own  life,  much  less  could  I  guarantee  theirs.  They 
then  said  I  must  leave  them  my  name  and  the  name 
of  my  village.  At  once  I  agreed  to  this,  and  they  then 
let  me  go. 

STRANGE  ESCAPIv  OF  A  TEACHER 

The  teacher  Tu  Chii  Hui  of  the  American  Boarrl 
mission  lived  with  his  wife  at  a  village  near  the  city  of 
Ch'ing  Yuan,  in  Shansi.  The  Roman  Catholics  are 
strong  in  this  region.  At  a  village  on  the  mountain- 
side four  miles  from  the  city  they  have  a  large  monas- 
tery that  can  accommodate  two  hundred  students. 
There  live  three  or  four  European  priests  of  the  Fran- 


232      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

ciscaii  order.  Mr.  Tu  had  several  times  been  threatened 
by  his  neighbors;  but  he  refused  to  flee  for  his  Hfe, 
saying  to  his  wife,  *'We  will  remain  here  and  die  to- 
gether if  it  is  the  Lord's  will." 

The  Boxers  came  in  force  to  attack  the  Catholic 
place ;  some  estimated  that  there  were  more  than  three 
thousand.  The  Catholics  had  armed  their  three  hun- 
dred converts,  and  in  their  stronghold  were  attacked 
on  three  occasions,  repelling  the  attacks  with  great 
slaughter. 

Just  before  one  of  these  attacks  was  made,  Mr. 
Tu's  neighbors  had  seized  and  bound  him  in  order  to 
conduct  him  to  the  Boxer  camp,  fearing  the  conse- 
quences if  the  Boxers  should  come  to  their  village  to 
take  him  themselves. 

They  had  approached  to  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  camp  when  suddenly  there  began  one  of  the 
battles  between  the  Boxers  and  the  Roman  Catholics. 
The  neighbors  were  so  frightened  that  they  left  Mr. 
Tu  and  fled.  He  returned  to  his  home  unharmed,  and 
as  the  Boxers  were  badly  defeated  in  this  last  engage- 
ment, they  were  discouraged,  and  hearing  soon  after 
of  the  advance  of  foreign  soldiers  toward  Shansi^  they 
disbanded  and  scattered  to  their  homes. 

Among  the  wonderful  deliverances  of  that  summer, 
none  proved  God's  loving  watch-care  more  beautifully 
than  those  of  Ti-to,  given  in  Chapter  IX,  and  Chang 
Wen  Ts'ui,  given  in  Chapter  XL 

"  Through  the  valley  and  shadow  of  death  though  I  stray, 
Since  thou  art  my  Guardian,  no  evil  I  fear; 
Thy  rod  shall  defend  me,  thy  staff  be  my  stay ; 
No  harm  can  befall  with  my  Comforter  near." 


CHAPTER  VII 

MARTYR  DAYS  IN  PEKING  AND  THE  SUR- 
ROUNDING COUNTRY 

"  Hereunto  were  ye  called ;  because  Christ  also  suffered 
for  you,  leaving  you  an  example,  that  ye  should  follow  his 
steps." 

In  the  following  chapters  narratives  are  grouped 
according  to  locality,  in  order  to  give  a  more  historic 
and  vivid  picture  of  the  times.  It  will  be  noted  that 
there  are  few  details  given  concerning  those  who  suf- 
fered martyrdom  in  Peking.  In  the  great  city  hundreds 
were  cut  down  by  Boxers  who  knew  simply  that  they 
were  Christians,  and  in  the  mobs  of  onlookers  there 
were  none  who  had  known  them,  whose  hearts  were 
touched  by  their  death,  who  remembered  and  told  their 
story  in  after  days. 

DEACON  WAN  AND  HIS  FAMILY 

Late  in  the  day,  June  13th,  I  went  on  an  errand 
to  Legation  Street;  then  to  the  Methodist  mission,  to 
see  Dr.  Anient.  He  urged  me  to  stay  there,  but  I  said, 
"My  family  are  still  outside,  and  I  must  return  to  them 
ac  once,  for  I  know  not  what  may  befall  them."  When 
I  came  out  from  the  mission,  I  met  thirty  or  more 
Boxers,  who  were  burning  and  killing.  Several  times 
they  brandished  their  knives  over  my  head  in  a  mur- 
derous manner,  and  I  had  a  most  narrow  escape. 

Meanwhile  my  wife  was  in  great  trouble.  About 
eight  in  the  evening  she  saw  smoke  rising  south  of 

233 


234      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

our  home,  then  heard  rifle-shots  and  a  mob  crymg, 
''Kill !  kill !"  and  knew  that  Boxers  were  attacking  the 
missions.  A  neighbor  in  the  court  said  to  her,  "I  think 
there  is  trouble  ahead,  and  fear  your  entire  family  will 
be  killed."  My  wife  thought  that  she  ought  not  to 
leave  before  1  returned,  but  a  friend  said,  ''You  go 
first ;  when  your  husband  comes  we  can  tell  him  where 
you  have  gone."  So  she  fled  with  her  children  to  the 
stables  of  the  Lien  family;  but  as  they  would  not  let 
her  stay,  she  went  home  again,  and  going  upstairs,  sat 
down  while  the  children  crowded  weeping  around  her. 
They  thought  that  I  had  been  killed,  and  kept  sobbing, 
"Give  me  back  my  papa !"  Their  mother  said,  "Do  n't 
cry;  we  shall  soon  see  your  father;"  but  her  thought 
was  that  they  would  all  sit  together  in  that  room  until 
the  Boxers  came  to  cut  them  down,  then  their  souls 
would  go  to  meet  their  father.  The  air  was  dense  with 
smoke,  for  all  of  the  missions  were  burning.  A  neigh- 
bor ran  in  saying,  "Your  husband  has  come."  Hardly 
daring  to  believe  the  good  news,  my  wife  came  down, 
and  found  me  waiting  in  a  dark  corner  outside  the 
court.  Clasping  the  baby  in  my  arms,  I  led  my  family 
into  the  court  of  a  Christian  neighbor,  named  Ta,  as  it 
was  more  retired  there. 

Meanwhile  the  flames  burst  up  from  Teng  Shih 
K'ou,  and  smoke  and  sparks  blew  into  our  court. 
There  was  a  great  uproar.  Several  times  there  was 
a  knock  on  the  gate,  and  voices  would  call  out,  "Erh 
mao-tzu,  run  quickly;  the  Boxers  are  coming  to  kill 
you."  The  heavens  were  blood-red  from  the  fires  all 
over  the  city,  and  there  was  not  a  star  to  be  seen.  I 
climbed  to  the  roof  of  a  temple,  and  my  wife  stood  just 
below,  while  I  whispered  down  to  her  what  I  saw. 
Three  times  I  saw  the  Boxers  go  to  the  home  from 
which  we  had  escaped.    As  the  flames  did  their  work, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  iMARTYRS      235 

I  heard  the  church  hell  fall  with  a  great  crash,  while 
the  mob  set  up  a  howl  of  delight.  Then  a  man  went 
by,  calling  out:  "If  there  are  any  followers  of  the 
foreign  devils  about,  thev  had  better  escape  at  once. 
A  house-to-house  search  is  to  be  made  by  the  Boxers 
before  midnight."  I  said  to  my  wife :  "There  is  little 
hope  of  escape,  but  we  will  try.  Do  n't  let  the  children 
make  a  bit  of  noise.  I  will  carry  them  one  by  one  to 
the  roof  here,  where  we  will  be  screened  from  the  light 
of  the  fire  by  the  overhanging  trees ;  then  we  can  talk 
and  plan."  As  I  took  the  youngest  child  in  my  arms 
I  said :  "Little  one,  do  n't  cry.  I  am  afraid  some  one 
will  hear,  and  come  and  kill  us."  "Yes,"  she  murmured 
softly,  and  that  whole  long  night  not  a  loud  sound 
came  from  the  little  lips.  I  had  piled  benches  against 
the  wall,  and  by  their  aid  my  wife  and  the  older  children 
climbed  onto  the  high,  steep  roof.  My  wife  says  that 
it  seemed  as  if  some  one  was  lifting  her  up.  Then  we 
clambered  over  the  roofs  of  three  adjoining  houses, 
fearing  all  the  time  that  the  barking  of  the  dogs  would 
betray  us,  and  by  clinging  to  a  tree  we  let  ourselves 
down  to  the  ground,  all  bruised  and  torn.  We  hid  in 
a  tiny  vacant  room  back  of  the  temple.  Toward  morn- 
ing the  owner,  a  man  named  Chang,  discovered  that  we 
were  there,  and  ordered  us  to  leave  at  once.  "There 
is  to  be  a  house-to-house  search  all  through  the  city ; 
if  we  shelter  you,  we  shall  be  killed  too."  Our  children 
knelt  down  and  begged  them  to  shelter  us ;  but  Mr. 
Chang  said,  "It  is  the  will  of  heaven  to  exterminate 
you."  The  daughter  of  the  family  wept  in  sympathy 
for  our  sorrows,  and  gave  the  children  a  little  food. 
My  wife  borrowed  a  needle  and  thread  to  sew  up  some 
of  the  rents  in  our  garments ;  then  we  walked  out  into 
the  streets,  I  going  in  front  with  the  baby  in  my  arms. 
As  we  walked  through  the  streets  we  saw  Mrs. 


2z(>      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Wan,  the  deacon's  wife,  with  her  four  children.  She 
asked,  ''Where  are  you  going?"  We  answered,  "We 
have  no  place  to  go.  Where  are  you  going?"  ''I  have 
no  fixed  place  in  mind."  We  then  turned  east,  and  she 
and  her  children  went  north. 

[Note. — Nothing  more  is  known  of  the  fate  of  this 
family  of  Deacon  Wan,  the  barber,  but  it  is  reported 
that  they  were  killed  at  one  of  the  west  gates  of  Peking. 
The  wife  was  frail,  and  when  she  parted  from  the 
Wans  she  knew  that  there  was  nothing  for  her  and  her 
little  ones  but  to  await  death  on  the  streets.  Mrs. 
Wan  said:  ''Her  face  was  beautiful  when  I  left  her, 
so  calm  and  quiet  in  the  early  light  of  the  morning; 
it  seemed  as  if  she  and  her  little  ones  were  already  in 
heaven."] 

We  soon  met  over  a  hundred  Manchu  soldiers 
armed  with  foreign  rifles,  with  fixed  bayonets,  who 
shouted  loudly  as  they  went,  "Kill  the  foreign  devils! 
Burn  the  foreign  buildings  I" 

One  of  the  soldiers  pointed  his  bayonet  at  us,  and 
said,  "These  are  erh  mao-tzu;  let  us  kill  them."  An- 
other expostulated:  "Don't  do  it.  Haven't  the  par- 
ents and  children  suffered  enough  already?  Let  them 
pass." 

All  along  the  way,  people  kept  reviling  us  bitterly. 
We  went  to  the  door  of  a  friend,  not  a  Christian,  but 
he  would  not  let  us  in.  Then  we  went  to  the  home 
of  a  cousin.  His  wife  burst  into  tears  when  she  saw 
us,  and  said:  "You  need  not  go  elsewhere.  My 
husband  went  out  early  this  morning  to  try  to  find 
you."  While  we  were  eating,  my  cousin  came  in, 
overjoyed  to  find  us.  He  said,  "I  went  to  the  home 
to  look  for  you,  but  the  neighbors  did  not  tell  the  truth ; 
they  said  you  had  all  been  killed." 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      237 

Very  soon  the  neighbors  called  my  cousin's  wife 
out  and  said,  "You  must  not  keep  those  people  here; 
wherever  they  are,  flames  will  burst  up."  She  said: 
"This  is  not  true.  If  there  is  fire,  and  your  houses  are 
burned,  my  husband  will  repay  your  loss."  But  they 
were  determined  that  we  should  go ;  so  I  hired  a  cart, 
which  took  us  outside  the  city;  then  we  walked  to  a 
cemetery.  As  we  passed  along  we  heard  people  say- 
ing, "The  missions  are  all  burned,  the  Christians  are 
all  killed,"  and  my  wife  and  children  burst  out  crying. 
While  we  were  staying  in  the  cemetery,  some  men 
came  and  peered  at  us  through  cracks  in  the  wall. 
This  frightened  us,  for  we  thought  surely  they  were 
coming  to  kill  us ;  but  soon  they  went  away.  Leaving 
my  family  in  the  cemetery,  I  went  to  acquaintances 
named  Hsieh,  about  a  mile  away,  and  great  was  my 
relief  when  they  consented  that  we  take  refuge  there. 
I  had  hardly  returned  with  my  family  when  some  one 
rushed  in,  crying,  "The  Boxers  are  following  to  search 
for  you."  We  hid  in  some  haysheds  in  the  very  back 
of  the  court,  where  the  children  and  I,  completely 
exhausted,  immediately  fell  asleep,  but  my  wife  was  too 
sad  to  sleep.  Suddenly  in  a  dream  I  saw  one  who 
came  and  said:  "Don't  be  afraid.  The  ^Methodist 
mission  and  the  North  Cathedral  have  not  been  burned. 
So  let  your  hearts  be  at  peace.  Do  not  heed  the  talk 
of  others."  This  was  repeated  three  times.  So  our 
hearts  were  comforted  and  we  rejoiced. 

The  villagers  were  consulting  about  asking  the 
T'ungchou  Boxers  to  come  to  their  place,  and  in  the 
night  hours  we  were  forced  to  leave  this  shelter. 
When  we  were  passing  through  a  village  a  man  stand- 
ing on  a  roof  called  out,  "Who  are  you  ?"  "Travelers," 
I  replied.  "Travelers!  going  in  the  night!"  he  ex- 
claimed.     "You   must   be   blood-smearers   or   poison- 


238      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

scatterers."  He  then  screamed  out,  ''Here  are  blood- 
smearers,  poison-scatterers,  six  of  them ;  come  quick !" 

All  the  dogs  in  the  village  were  roused  by  his 
shouts.  Fleeing  again  through  the  country,  we  met 
several  egg-peddlers,  but  they  refused  to  sell  to  us 
until  my  wife  besought  them  for  the  sake  of  the  chil- 
dren to  sell  us  a  few  eggs,  and  one  man  took  pity  on 
them.  We  hoped  to  find  some  family  that  would  let  us 
cook  these  eggs,  and  so  went  to  the  home  of  a  cousin. 
She  refused  to  take  us  in,  saying,  ''It  won't  do !  it 
won't  do!  Go  at  once.  Boxers  are  just  back  of  our 
house.  If  they  come,  they  11  not  only  kill  you,  but  burn 
our  house.    Go  quick  ! 

She  seized  our  little  child  in  her  arms — for  we  were 
too  weak  to  carry  it — and  hurried  with  us  away  from 
the  village.  After  she  went  back,  an  old  man  work- 
ing in  a  garden  took  pity  on  us,  and  brought  us  water 
to  drink.  We  stumbled  on  very  slowly,  for  our  feet 
were  all  blistered,  and  my  oldest  daughter  had  lost 
her  shoes.  Then  we  came  to  a  large  cemetery,  con- 
nected with  which  were  many  houses.  Finding  the 
keeper  I  entreated  him,  saying,  "We  are  very  tired 
and  weak,  and  can  walk  no  further.  Please  let  us 
stay  here  a  day  or  two."  He  looked  very  unwilling, 
but  finally  let  us  go  into  a  little  back  court,  and  told 
the  servants  that  they  must  not  let  it  be  knovv^n  outside 
that  we  were  there.  They  brought  us  black  rice  to 
eat,  and  sent  a  man  into  Peking  to  bring  word  of  what 
was  happening  there,  also  to  learn  what  day  the  master 
of  the  cemetery,  who  was  a  Boxer,  would  send  his 
gardener  out  to  cut  flowers.  They  feared  that  the 
gardener  would  come  and  find  us  there.  The  mes- 
senger reported  that  there  were  few  Boxers  in  the 
city,  as  they  had  gone  into  the  country  to  enlist  more 
Boxers   and  also  said  that  the  Methodist  mission,  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS      239 

cathedral,  and  the  legations  had  not  yet  been  destroyed. 
The  keeper  urged  us  to  leave  at  once.  We  pleaded 
that  we  were  so  weak  that  we  could  not  stand  on  our 
feet,  but  he  would  not  consent  to  our  staying. 

I  called  my  oldest  boy,  and  said  to  him,  "Peter,  if 
the  Boxers  come  now  to  kill  you,  if  you  say  that  you 
are  a  believer  in  Jesus,  they  will  kill  you.  If  you  say 
that  you  are  not  a  believer  they  will  not  kill  you.  Do  you 
dare  to  say  that  you  believe  in  Jesus?"  *Tapa,  don't 
be  troubled,"  Peter  said,  "I  shall  certainly  say  that  I 
believe  in  Jesus."  My  little  Paul  and  my  daughter 
Wen  P'ing  gave  the  same  answer.  My  heart  was 
greatly  moved  when  I  thought  that  such  dear  children 
as  these  must  be  killed  by  wicked  men. 

Again  the  keeper  came,  urging  us  to  go,  and  I 
started  out,  saying  to  my  family,  "If  the  Boxers  come, 
I  '11  have  them  kill  you  first  and  me  last  of  all ;  then 
I  shall  know  that  you  are  safe  in  heaven."  None  of 
my  children  feared  to  die,  so  my  heart  was  greatly  com- 
forted. Just  as  we  were  leaving,  a  cart  drove  up,  and 
the  keeper  said  to  the  driver,  "Carter,  I  have  some  rela- 
tives who  fled  from  the  city  because  of  the  confusion 
there.  Now  they  want  to  go  back.  I  '11  give  you  four 
strings  of  cash  if  you  '11  take  them  in  your  cart."  The 
man  consented,  and  drove  us  in  through  the  Chi  Hua 
Gate.  We  saw  that  Boxers  were  guarding  the  gate, 
and  feared  it  would  not  be  easy  to  enter;  but  several 
other  carts  went  in  at  the  same  time,  and  though  the 
Boxers  pointed  their  spears  at  us,  they  did  not  stop 
the  carts.  We  went  first  to  a  house  which  I  owned 
in  the  city,  but  the  tenants  would  not  let  us  in.  As 
we  drove  from  street  to  street  my  wife  saw  that  I  was 
in  the  depths  of  despair,  and  said,  in  a  whisper,  "God 
has  let  us  come  all  this  way,  and  we  have  not  met  Box- 
ers.    We  must  not  seek  death;  perhaps  it  is  his  will 


240      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

that  we  should  live."  Then  we  went  toward  the  Meth- 
odist mission,  meeting  two  children,  who  said.  '*Do  n't 
gc  south ;  the  foreign  devils  have  barricaded  the  streets 
there,  and  let  no  one  pass.  If  you  go  on,  they  will 
kill  you." 

Soon  we  were  at  the  gate  of  the  mission,  and  some 
one  recognized  us  and  let  us  in.  The  children  jumped 
for  joy,  saying,  ''This  is  almost  as  nice  as  getting  to 
heaven."  And  when  the  Christian  brothers  and  sisters 
came  clustering  around  us  with  sympathy  and  comfon, 
I  felt  like  Christian  when  he  went  into  the  House  Beau- 
tiful. 

Mrs.  Wan's  story  closes  with  the  words,  "During 
the  siege  our  dear  baby  girl  died,  and  heaven  seems 
very  near  to  us  now." 

TA  WEN  ^u 

[The  following  is  the  story  of  a  little  boy  nine  years 
old,  the  only  survivor  of  a  family  of  eight.  Their  home 
was  close  by  the  American  Board  mission.  The  mother 
was  one  of  the  early  students  in  the  Bridgman  School, 
and  for  several  years  taught  "The  Emily  Ament  Memo- 
rial School."] 

When  the  Boxers  burned  the  American  Board  mis- 
sion our  family  all  fled  together.  Seeing  a  band  of 
Manchu  soldiers,  we  hid  in  a  flour-shop,  and  from  our 
shelter  we  could  see  the  soldiers  thrusting  some  one 
through  with  their  bayonets.  Then  we  went  on  toward 
the  nearest  gate  of  the  city,  but  it  was  guarded  by  sol- 
diers and  Boxers,  and  they  looked  so  threatening  that 
we  turned  back.  Some  one  told  us  of  a  little  room 
in  an  alley  where  he  thought  we  might  go,  and  we  wan- 
dered around  hunting  for  it,  but  did  not  find  it.  Then 
mother  and  my  thirteen-year-old  brother  went  toward 


'l.\  Win  V\-  ANh  lli^  Cnisix  Ki:n(;  Minci  Te 


CHINA'vS  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      241 

the  south,  and  in  the  crowds  I  got  separated  from  the 
others,  and  lost  my  way.  About  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  I  made  ni}-  way  home,  and  found  my  oldest 
brother  and  three  sisters  there.  All  of  our  things  had 
been  stolen,  and  all  of  our  neighbors  had  left  the  court 
except  one  old  lady,  who  took  pity  on  us  and  gave  us 
some  food.  Soon  my  father  came  in.  In  coming  he 
passed  the  palace  of  a  Mongol  prince  close  by,  where 
many  Boxers  lived,  and  twenty  or  thirty  of  them  fol- 
lowed right  behind  him,  crying,  "Kill  the  erh  mao-tzu!" 
They  rushed  into  our  house  and  seized  my  father  by  his 
queue.  Another  caught  my  oldest  brother,  and  kept 
asking  him  questions,  but  my  brother  did  n't  say  a 
word.  Aly  fifteen-year-old  sister  took  my  little  sister  in 
her  arms.  Then  the  Boxers  with  swords  in  their  hands 
drove  us  all  out  into  the  alley.  There  was  quite  a 
rabble  there,  and  as  the  Boxers  passed  by,  all  knelt 
down.  I  knelt  down  among  them,  and  the  Boxers 
did  n't  notice  me.  So  I  was  separated  from  the  others, 
who  were  dragged  on  toward  the  great  street,  only  a 
few  yards  away.  I  followed  behind  and  heard  my  old- 
est sister  say,  "Do  kill  us  with  just  one  sword  thrust." 
I  stood  with  the  crowd,  and  saw  the  Boxers,  with  their 
terrible  swords  and  spears,  form  a  circle  about  the  peo- 
ple they  were  going  to  kill.  There  were  many  other 
children  standing  with  the  spectators.  Some  Boxers 
looked  toward  me,  but  a  man  standing  by  me,  said, 
"This  boy  is  n't  one  of  them."  They  turned  to  kill  my 
father,  and  some  one  gave  me  a  push,  saying,  "Run !" 
I  ran  back  up  the  alley,  then  off  through  the  streets. 
I  didn't  know^  where  I  was  going;  I  just  seemed  to 
see  Boxers  and  dreadful  swords,  and  ran  until  I  was 
tired.  Then  it  grew  dark,  and  I  wandered  back  into 
our  alley,  sobbing  with  grief  and  fear.  Some  one  gave 
me  a  little  money,  and  told  me  to  run  away,  and  buy 
16 


242      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

something  to  eat.  The  soldiers  and  Boxers  had  all 
gone  away  from  the  mission,  and  the  houses  were  all 
burned  down.  I  did  n't  find  any  Christians,  so  I 
thought  the  Boxers  had  killed  them  all. 

I  do  n't  remember  how  many  days  I  lived  on  the 
streets.  One  night  I  slept  among  some  great  bamboo 
poles  stacked  up  on  the  side  of  the  street ;  another  night 
I  crawled  into  a  little  pocket  between  some  houses. 
Just  as  soon  as  I  would  drop  to  sleep  I  would  dream 
such  terrible  dreams.  Sometimes  it  was  Manchu  sol- 
diers chasing  me,  sometimes  it  was  Boxers  hanging 
over  me.  Then  I  would  wake  up  crying,  and  lie  with 
my  eyes  wide  open  a  long  time,  so  lonely  and  afraid ; 
yet  I  did  n't  want  to  go  to  sleep,  because  I  knew  those 
terrible  dreams  would  come  again.  Several  times, 
those  days,  kind  people  pitied  me,  and  gave  me  a  drink 
or  something  to  eat.  Several  times  I  went  back  to  the 
place  where  we  had  livedo  but  my  loved  ones  were  all 
gone.  I  thought  I  might  find  my  mother  and  brother 
hiding  somewhere,  but  I  think  they  must  have  been 
killed. 

I  can't  remember  those  days  very  well  now ;  but 
finally  a  man,  whose  name  I  do  n't  know,  said  he  wanted 
me,  and  he  took  me  to  the  little  house  where  he  lived. 
There  was  an  old  man  living  there  with  him.  They 
gave  me  something  to  eat,  and  let  me  sleep  there.  The 
young  man  had  a  stand  on  a  street  not  far  away,  where 
he  sold  tea  and  cakes.  He  told  me  to  go  there  with 
him ;  but  the  older  man  called  out,  "Do  n't  take  that 
child  with  you  into  the  street ;  he  's  a  Jesus  Church 
boy."  "No,  he  is  n't,"  said  my  friend,  very  angry.  The 
next  day  the  old  man  made  the  same  objection;  but  he 
was  answered  so  fiercely  that  he  never  again  said  any- 
thing about  my  being  a  Christian. 

I  can't  tell  how  many  weeks  I  staid  with  these  two 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      243 

men.  I  was  so  frightened  all  the  time,  for  the  Boxers 
had  killed  hundreds  of  people,  and  they  kept  going 
around  hunting  for  Christians.  Some  of  them,  armed 
with  swords,  came  into  our  little  house  one  day.  My 
friend  made  me  kneel  down  beside  him  while  they  were 
searching,  and  they  did  n't  know  that  I  was  a  Christian. 
I  was  so  afraid  nights  that  I  kept  waking  up,  and  I 
could  n't  eat  much.  We  could  hear  the  sound  of  can- 
non and  rifles,  and  heard  all  sorts  of  stories  about  fight- 
ing the  foreigners  at  the  legations. 

Then  came  a  day  when  every  one  looked  frightened 
and  kept  saying,  "The  foreign  soldiers  are  coming." 
My  friend  said  that  we  must  flee  at  once  to  his  home  in 
the  country.  So  we  started  out,  and  as  I  was  too  weak 
to  go  fast,  he  carried  me.  As  we  were  turning  down 
a  street  some  one  called  out,  "There  are  foreign  sol- 
diers down  there,"  so  we  ran  in  another  direction.  We 
walked  a  long  time,  then  we  crossed  a  wide  river  on 
a  ferry.  Then  we  walked  another  day,  and  crossed  an- 
other river.  I  think  it  was  the  fourth  day  when  we 
came  to  the  village  where  the  man  lived.  We  staid 
there  several  days.  I  had  never  been  in  the  country 
before.  I  don't  remember  just  when  it  was  that  we 
started  back  for  Peking^. 

One  day,  soon  after  we  got  back,  as  I  was  standing 
at  the  door  of  the  little  house  where  my  friend  lived, 
a  man  called  to  mc.  It  was  Meng  Erh,  who  had  been  a 
servant  at  the  mission  for  a  great  many  years.  He  took 
me  to  that  Mongol  prince's  place  where  the  Boxers  who 
killed  my  people  had  staid.  I  found  Dr.  Ament  and 
some  other  missionaries  there.  I  saw  Dr.  Ament  give 
the  man  who  had  taken  care  of  me  so  many  weeks  some 
money.  After  a  day  or  two  I  was  taken  to  another  mis- 
sion not  far  away,  where  my  mother's  two  brothers 
were  living,     I  did  not  know  these  uncles  very  well, 


244      CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS 

for  they  had  always  lived  in  T'ungchou  before.  They 
told  me  that  no  trace  could  be  found  of  any  other  mem- 
bers of  my  family.  They  asked  me  a  great  many  ques- 
tions ;  but  my  head  ached  so,  and  felt  so  confused,  that 
I  could  n't  answer  them. 

I  had  begun  to  have  bad  dreams  again,  not  only  of 
Boxers  and  soldiers,  but  of  wild  beasts  and  indescrib- 
able, strange  shapes.  I  did  n't  want  to  go  to  sleep 
because  these  awful  dreams  always  came,  yet  I  felt 
so  very,  very  tired.  My  head  was  dizzy,  and  felt  so 
hot  when  I  put  my  hand  on  it.  My  three-year-old 
cousin  and  his  baby  brother  laughed  and  played,  but  I 
only  wanted  to  get  in  a  quiet  corner  somewhere.  Then 
came  many  days  that  I  do  n't  remember  about  at  all, 
except  that  I  kept  having  these  dreams,  and  was  so 
afraid  in  the  dark.  They  told  me  afterwards  that  I 
had  been  very  sick  with  fever,  and  they  did  not  think 
I  would  get  well.  That  was  many  weeks  ago.  Now  I 
am  well  again,  and  the  bad  dreams  do  n't  come  any 
more.  I  go  to  school  three  hours  every  day,  then  have 
good  times  playing  with  my  little  cousins. 

the:  YIN   F'AMII.Y 

[The  following  narrative  from  "Life  and  Light," 
written  by  Miss  Nellie  Russell,  gives  the  experience 
of  a  Christian  family  living  near  the  American  Board 
mission:] 

June  13th,  just  at  dark,  they  heard  people  on  the 
street  calling  out,  "Kill  them  !  kill !  kill !"  A  neighbor 
who  was  on  guard  told  them  that  the  Boxers  were 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  church,  and  said,  "Run  fast 
for  your  lives."  Five  families,  all  Christians,  ran  out 
on  the  back  street.  Of  the  five,  only  this  one  escaped. 
Mr,  and  Mrs.  Yin  and  their  three  little  children  made 


'\.\  Wkn  In- 

(The  largest  cf  the  throe  chiliiren  — the  others  are  his  two  uncles  ami  their  families.) 


CHINA^S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      245 

their  way  to  her  sister's  on  Eip:hth  Street.  There  they 
spent  the  ni^ht ;  before  Hglit  they  ^^ot  up  and  went  out 
the  Tung  Chih  Gate.  As  they  went  through  the  gate 
Mr.  Yin  was  caught,  and  in  the  confusion  the  mother 
escaped  with  the  children  and  made  her  way  to  the 
home  of  another  sister  Hving  three  miles  from  the  city. 
When  she  reached  there  her  sister  said  that  she  could 
not  keep  her,  as  they  had  neighbors  who  were  IJoxers, 
and  she  must  leave  at  once.  She  said  she  must  rest 
a  while,  as  she  was  very  tired. 

Just  as  she  was  about  to  leave,  Mr.  Yin  came  in. 
The  Boxers,  who  were  only  a  few  in  number,  had  asked 
him  if  he  was  a  Christian.  "Yes,"  he  said,  "I  am."  He 
had  a  gun,  given  him  by  Dr.  Anient;  and  by  giving 
them  that,  all  his  money,  and  part  of  his  clothing,  he 
persuaded  them  to  let  him  go.  They  took  him  out  to 
a  crossroad  and  told  him  to  go  east,  and  they  would 
go  west.  This  they  did,  and  he  joined  his  family. 
After  eating,  they  all  started  out  together,  and  went 
to  another  village  near  by,  where  there  was  a  bamboo 
marsh.  They  hid  there  for  a  time ;  then,  seeing  people 
searching  in  the  marsh  some  distance  from  them,  they 
got  up  and  went  on.  They  had  gone  only  a  few  steps 
when  tliey  saw  a  company  of  Boxers  coming,  so  they 
again  hid.  After  a  time  they  made  their  way  out,  and 
about  dark  reached  the  Chi  Hua  Gate.  They  passed 
Mr.  Kao's  house,  which  was  all  in  flames,  and  saw  his 
books,  as  well  as  those  belonging  to  the  little  school, 
scattered  all  over  the  street.  Then  they  made  their 
way  to  the  home  of  Mrs.  Yin's  brother.  It  was  dark 
when  they  reached  there. 

Some  of  the  neighbors  saw  them,  and  said,  **The 
Boxers  are  going  to  search  every  house  to-night,  and 
if  any  Christian  is  found  he  will  be  killed."  Mr.  Yin 
said,  "Friends,  if  the  Boxers  come  you  need  not  be 


246      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

afraid ;  they  will  only  touch  us ;  we  will  see  that  no  one 
else  is  harmed."  The  night  was  quiet,  however,  and 
they  all  managed  to  get  a  little  much-needed  rest. 
Again  they  were  up  before  light,  and  went  north  to  a 
cemetery.  There  they  hid  till  noon.  They  had  eaten 
nothing  that  day.  About  noon  they  were  seen  by 
two  women,  who  said,  "There  are  some  followers  of  the 
devils."  Hearing  this,  they  got  up  and  made  their  way 
toward  the  city  gate.  Mr.  Yin  was  a  little  in  advance, 
carrying  the  second  little  girl.  Mrs.  Yin  was  carrying 
the  youngest,  and  holding  the  hand  of  Ruth,  then  ten 
years  old.  She  looked  around  and  saw  two  men  follow- 
ing them.  They  called  out  to  her,  and  she,  instead  of 
running  on  after  her  husband,  waited  for  them. 
They  said,  "You  are  a  Christian." 
"How  do  you  know  ?"  was  her  reply. 
"The  mark  of  the  cross  is  on  your  forehead,  and 
you  must  go  with  me." 

"I  can  not  go  with  you ;  I  must  go  on  after  my  hus- 
band." They  seized  her  and  took  her  to  a  street  near 
the  Pien  Gate,  her  two  children  following.  There  they 
were  joined  by  forty  or  fifty  Boxers. 

They  asked,  "Who  told  you  to  scatter  medicine  all 
over  the  streets  to  deceive  people?" 
She  said,  "I  have  not  done  that." 
"How  many  people  have  you  killed?" 
"I  am  a  woman,  how  could  I  kill  any  one  ?" 
They  searched  her  to  find  medicine,  then  took  the 
ashes  from  the  incense  and  sprinkled  on  her  face.   The 
leader  seized  his  knife,  and  laying  it  on  her  neck,  was 
about  to  kill  her,  when  some  one  called  out,  "Let  her 
go;  she  has  done  no  harm."    After  some  talking  back 
and  forth,  she  was  unbound,  but  had  gone  only  a  few 
steps  when  she  was  again  seized.    They  made  her  kneel 
down  and  bound  her  arms  behind  her  back.    She  heard 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      247 

some  one  say,  "Let  her  go ;  her  heart  is  hard."  Again 
she  felt  the  knife  at  the  back  of  her  neck.  "But  I  was 
not  afraid;  my  heart  was  quiet,"  she  says  when  she 
tells  her  story.  At  last  they  let  her  go,  and  she  moved 
away ;  slowly  this  time,  for  she  was  faint  from  hunger, 
and  she  felt  that  the  Lord  had  cared  for  her  and  would 
still  do  so.  Back  over  the  ground  she  went,  and  hid 
in  the  bamboo  marsh.  All  day  she  had  not  a  mouthful 
of  food.  She  saw  an  old  woman,  mother  of  one  of 
the  Methodist  Church  members,  begging  for  a  drink 
of  water ;  but  instead  of  getting  it  she  was  seized  and 
carried  off  to  a  Boxer  camp.  Mrs.  Yin  asked  for 
water,  but  was  refused.  She  met  a  man,  and  told  him 
who  she  was.  He  was  kind,  and  gave  her  a  little 
money,  and  said  he  would  help  her  get  to  her  sister. 
People  who  knew  him  tried  to  have  him  give  her  up 
to  the  Boxers,  but  he  said,  "No;  she  is  a  good  woman." 
It  was  dark  when  she  reached  her  sister's.  When  the 
latter  saw  her  she  cried  out,  "I  can  not  save  you." 
She,  however,  gave  her  some  tea  and  cake.  At  last, 
after  much  talking,  she  said  that  as  long  as  Mr.  Yin 
was  not  with  them,  they  would  let  them  stay  all  night. 
They  had  a  sweet-potato  cave  out  in  the  field  near 
their  house,  and  decided  to  put  it  in  order  and  hide 
them  there.  While  clearing  it  out  the  next  day,  and 
getting  it  ready,  a  message  was  sent  them  by  some 
neighbor,  telling  them  that  the  Boxers  knew  of  the  cave 
and  would  search  it  that  night,  also  their  home.  It  was 
nearly  dark  then,  but  Mrs.  Yin  and  her  two  little 
girls  started  out  and  again  hid  in  the  bamboo  swamp. 
It  was  cold  and  so  dark.  The  children  slept.  Mrs.  Yin 
put  some  of  her  clothing  over  them  and  crouched 
near,  keeping  watch  all  night  long.  For  hours  a  man 
walked  around  the  swamp  with  his  dog,  which  barked 
most  of  the  time. 


248      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Before  it  was  light  she  made  her  way  to  the  An 
Ting  Gate,  and  from  there  across  the  city  to  the  P'ing 
Tzu  Gate.  There  she  saw  the  Boxers  seize  three  men, 
and  she  hid  back  of  a  small  temple.  At  last  she  noticed 
that  she  was  being  followed.  She  heard  people  as  she 
went  along  say,  *'She  is  a  follower ;  let 's  give  her  to  the 
Boxers ;"  others  said,  ''Never  mind  what  she  is ;  let 
us  attend  to  our  own  business."  That  night  she  hid 
in  a  corner  of  the  city  wall.  Two  small  millet  cakes 
were  all  she  and  the  children  had  eaten  that  day.  The 
next  morning  she  went  back  to  the  An  Ting  Gate,  and 
sat  till  noon  on  the  steps  of  a  coffin  shop.  *'Do  n't  go 
east;  the  Boxers  are  there,  killing  every  one  they  see 
and  suspect."  She  went  out  into  a  field,  found  a  va- 
cant house,  and  as  it  was  raining  crouched  down  in  a 
corner,  cold,  wet,  and  hungry.  She  did  not  sleep,  but 
the  children  did.  She  thought  that  her  foreign  friends 
were  all  killed,  that  her  husband  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Boxers,  and  that  it  was  but  a  question  of  a  day  or 
two  for  them.  In  the  early  morning  she  said  to  her 
little  girl,  *'We  will  go  and  see  if  they  are  all  killed." 
They  had  prayers, — the  little  girl  praying  she  might 
find  her  father  that  day.  They  made  their  way  by  back 
streets  to  their  old  home,  and  saw  the  place  in  ruins, 
and  people  stealing  the  bricks.  Some  one  asked  her 
where  she  was  going,  and  she  replied  that  she  was 
going  to  the  Methodist  mission.  She  saw  the  soldiers 
kill  a  man,  and  hurried  on,  hearing  people  say,  "There 
goes  a  Christian."  Going  into  the  police  station  near 
the  mission,  she  was  told  that  all  the  foreigners  and 
Christians  there  had  been  killed.  She  went  out,  and, 
while  debating  what  to  do  next,  saw  an  ice-man  turn 
down  the  street  near  the  mission.  She  asked  him  where 
he  was  going,  and  he  said,  "To  take  ice  to  the  foreign- 
ers,"    She  followed  him,  and  soon  was  in  the  Methodist 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      249 

mission,  after  five  weary  days  of  wandering.  To  her 
great  joy  she  found  there  her  husband  and  Httle  girl. 

At  the  time  when  Mrs.  Yin  was  taken  by  the  Box- 
ers, her  husband  saw  a  band  coming  toward  him,  and 
with  his  Httle  girl  in  his  arms,  he  jumped  over  a  wall 
into  a  court,  ran  across  this,  jumped  a  second  wall, 
and  found  himself  in  a  small  street.  He  made  his  way 
across  the  city  toward  the  British  Legation.  They  had 
outposts,  and  he  got  near  to  one,  and  tried  to  talk  with 
the  British  marine.  He  saw  the  child  in  Mr.  Yin's 
arms,  and  thought  he  must  be  a  Christian,  so  he  kept 
him  with  him  all  night,  and  the  next  morning  took  him 
to  the  Methodist  mission. 

This  little  girl  with  him  was  five  years  old,  and 
though  for  a  day  and  a  night  she  did  not  have  any- 
thing to  eat,  she  never  cried  out  once,  even  when  her 
father  jumped  the  two  walls  with  her.  When  he 
reached  the  mission  he  was  put  on  night  duty,  and  until 
the  mother  came  the  child  would  not  leave  him.  Even 
in  a  pouring  rain  she  insisted  on  going  with  him  to 
his  post.  Theirs  was  a  happy  reunion,  the  only  one 
of  the  four  families  to  reach  safety.  Safety,  I  say ;  the 
others,  too,  are  safe — so  safe  in  the  keeping  of  the  One 
who  loved  them  and  for  whom  they  died. 

TEACHER  KUO 

[Mr.  Kuo  is  a  man  about  forty  years  of  age,  a  lit- 
erary graduate  of  the  first  degree,  the  assistant  of 
Drs.  Wherry  and  Whiting  of  the  Presbyterian  mis- 
sion, a  preacher  of  no  inconsiderable  power,  and  an 
elder  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Peking.] 

In  the  early  days  of  June,  when  the  power  of  the 
Boxers  began  to  increase  in  the  province  of  Chihli, 
and  they  were  tearing  up  the  railroad,  destroying  the 


250      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

telegraph,  killing  the  Christians,  and  burning  churches, 
and  the  Church  members  were  fleeing  in  every  direc- 
tion, I  frequently  spoke  with  my  brethren  of  persecu- 
tion as  approaching,  urging  that  we  make  early  prepa- 
ration. We  also  often  gathered  for  prayer,  that  our 
faith  might  be  strengthened  to  enable  us  to  persevere 
in  our  trust  in  the  Lord.  On  the  13th,  perceiving  that 
there  were  many  Boxers  going  to  and  fro  in  the  cap- 
ital, and  that  the  officials  were  doing  nothing  to  re- 
strain them^  I  felt  sure  that  disastrous  disturbances 
were  at  hand,  so  I  discussed  with  the  brethren  of  our 
own  compound  the  plan  of  moving  into  the  church. 
If  the  Lord  willed  to  save  our  lives,  then  we  would 
escape  injury;  if  he  willed  to  take  our  souls  to  himself, 
we  could  die  together  in  the  church.  All  the  brethren 
approved  the  plan ;  so,  taking  advantage  of  the  evening, 
five  families  of  us  moved  to  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  were  all,  with  the  women  and  children,  in 
one  building.  The  men  climbed  to  the  roofs  to  watch. 
As  the  night  wore  on,  we  saw  fires,  beginning  at  the 
south,  and  one  after  another  kindling  toward  the  north. 
We  saw  that  the  Second  Street  Presbyterian  Church 
had  been  fired,  and  on  the  street  were  crowds,  shouting 
that  the  Boxers  were  exterminating  the  Christians.  I 
said  to  my  brethren,  **Our  time  has  come ;  we  ought  to 
be  praying."  So  we  climbed  down  from  the  roof,  and 
gathered  for  prayer,  our  chief  petition  being  that  the 
Lord's  will  might  be  done.  When  we  had  finished,  we 
debated  what  we  should  do.  ''We  have  no  place  to  which 
we  can  flee  at  night.  Let  us  stay  here.  If  the  Boxers 
come,  we  will  die  together."  But  there  were  one  or 
two  who  did  not  agree,  so  they  set  out  in  flight.  There 
were  still  ten  or  more  of  us  who  made  up  our  minds 
not  to  go.  Suddenly  Tou  Wei  Ch'eng  knocked  at  the 
gate.    Entering,  he  said:    *'The  Second  Church  is  al- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      251 

ready  burned,  and  many  Church  members  have  been 
killed.  The  Boxers  are  coming^.  You  must  flee  at 
once.  If  you  hide  in  some  small  lane,  you  can  escape 
them."  I  at  once  urged  the  brethren  to  a  hasty  flight. 
As  we  went  out  of  the  gate,  we  separated  into  two 
companies,  one  going  west,  my  daughter  with  them, 
while  I,  with  a  few  others,  coming  out  last,  came  up 
on  the  rear  of  the  Boxers,  and  went  east.  We  had  not 
gone  a  thousand  feet  before  the  church  was  ablaze, 
and  soon  the  street  chapel  (on  another  street)  also 
blazed  up.  We  made  for  a  little  lane,  sometimes  going 
slowly,  sometimes  stopping  for  a  time,  sometimes  hid- 
ing by  the  bank  of  the  river.  As  morning  approached, 
I  dispersed  our  company  each  to  seek  relatives  and 
friends.  I,  with  my  wife  and  little  son  and  Mr.  Tou, 
left  the  city,  planning  to  go  to  the  homes  of  Church 
members  east  of  the  city  about  forty  miles.  .  .  . 
As  we  went  out  of  the  city  I  first  asked  Mr.  Tou  to 
go  ahead  with  my  wife  and  child,  and  wait  for  us  at 
Tung  Pa,  eight  miles  from  the  city,  while  I  went  back 
and  forth  in  my  search,  seeing  great  numbers  of  dead 
bodies,  but  not  finding  my  daughter  among  them. 
While  I  was  moving  about,  I  heard  a  man  say  that 
in  a  certain  place,  a  young  girl  had  been  dragged  by 
the  Boxers  to  one  of  their  altars.  The  description  of 
the  place  and  of  the  girl's  age,  appearance,  and  cloth- 
ing, corresponded  very  closely  with  those  of  my  daugh- 
ter. So  I  concluded  that  if  it  was  indeed  so,  I  would 
commit  my  daughter  to  the  Lord.  I  therefore  has- 
tened out  of  the  city  toward  Tung  Pa.  Arriving  there, 
I  found  my  little  boy  crying  in  the  middle  of  the  inn. 
Fortunately,  the  landlord  was  a  good  irkan,  and  said  to 
me,  "There  are  two  altars  in  this  village,  and  the 
Boxers  are  very  numerous."  He  seemed  to  know  that 
we  were  Christians,  and  to  fear  lest  we  might  be  in- 


252      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

jured.  He  urged  us  to  hasten  on,  and  hired  three  don- 
keys for  us.  So  we  went  on,  and  about  sundown  lodged 
at  Sha  Wu,  in  an  inn.  Alas !  this  village  also  had  a 
Boxer  altar,  and  in  the  inn  was  a  Boxer,  the  second 
son  of  the  village  teacher,  with  a  pale  face  and  piercing 
eyes.  From  the  time  we  entered  the  inn  he  had  noth- 
ing to  say,  but  his  eyes  never  left  us.  Mr.  Ton's  look 
of  fear  and  his  color  showed  him  clearly  that  we  were 
Christians.  There  were  besides  him  in  the  inn  seven 
or  eight  people,  probably  one  family.  They  were  all 
talking  wicked  words.  There  was  nothing  for  us  to 
do  except  to  commit  ourselves  to  the  Lord.  When  it 
was  time  to  retire,  we,  with  the  others,  lay  down  in  the 
same  room.  About  midnight  my  wife  saw  five  men 
standing  in  front  of  the  brick  bed  on  which  we  were 
sleeping,  and  thought  they  were  about  to  kill  us.  She 
awoke  Mr.  Tou  and  me.  We  had  not  opened  our 
mouths  to  speak,  when  one  of  the  men  said,  "You  go 
to  sleep  and  we  '11  talk  about  it  in  the  morning."  I 
said,  "All  right."  After  they  had  gone  to  sleep,  Mr. 
Tou  said  in  a  low  voice  to  me^  "Let  us  flee."  I  said, 
"You  can  flee,  for  you  are  in  your  full  strength,  and 
are  alone.  Among  us  are  the  weak  and  the  small; 
we  can  not  escape  by  flight ;  we  will  go  to  our  Lord." 
Mr.  Tou  accordingly  very  quietly  opened  the  door  and 
ran.  The  men  in  the  inn  awoke,  and  pursued,  but  did 
not  overtake  him.  Returning,  they  closed  the  door  and 
said  to  me,  "Who  ran  ?"  I  said,  "My  friend  has  gone." 
They  asked,  "Are  you  going  to  run  away?"  I  said, 
"We  certainly  shall  not  run,  but  will  let  you  do  what 
you  will  to-morrow."  He  said,  "Good."  When  they 
had  gone  to  sleep  again,  I  made  preparations  for  my 
wife  and  child,  and  we  committed  ourselves  to  God, 
silently  praying  that  the  Lord's  will  might  be  done. 
Suddenly  that  Boxer  made  a  movement,  and  with  a  ter- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      253 

rible  voice  reviled  us,  saying,  "I  am  certainly  going  to 
kill  you.  I  am  going  to  the  altar  for  my  sword."  He 
leaped  out  of  the  door  and  ran.  With  my  arm  about 
my  little  boy,  and  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  my  wife, 
I  sat,  simply  awaiting  the  time  of  his  return  to  kill  us. 
Suddenly  my  wife  began  to  entreat  the  old  man  of  the 
inn,  saying :  "We  are  all  good  people ;  how  can  you  bear 
to  see  him  kill  us?  If  you  will  have  pity  on  us,  let  us 
escape  for  our  lives."  The  old  man  said,  **A11  right," 
so  we  fled.  We  had  not  gone  far  from  the  village  be- 
fore we  heard  the  voices  of  many  shouting  in  pursuit. 
Fortunately,  we  ran  to  the  south,  while  they  pursued 
toward  the  north  and  failed  to  catch  us. 

We  fled  until  daylight,  and  were  about  to  enter 
T'ungchou,  with  the  purpose  of  hiring  a  boat  and  re- 
turning to  our  old  home  in  Shantung,  when  we  met 
a  peddler  carrying  a  load  out  of  the  city.  I  asked  him 
if  there  were  any  boats  at  T'ungchou.  He  said:  "Yes, 
but  the  Boxers  have  forbidden  any  of  them  to  leave. 
Do  not  on  any  consideration  go  near  there,  as  you 
value  your  life,  for  the  Boxers  are  very  numerous; 
the  soldiers  are  also  frightfully  cruel,  and  great  num- 
bers have  been  killed."  When  I  heard  these  words,  I 
led  my  wife  and  son  back  toward  the  west.  The 
farther  we  went,  the  hotter  it  grew,  and  we  were  very 
thirsty.  We  considered  where  we  should  go.  We 
could  not  go  home,  and  dared  not  return  to  Peking. 
We  would  not  be  allowed  to  seek  friends.  So  we  were 
in  fear  and  sadness  almost  to  despair,  and  thought  that 
the  Lord  had  forsaken  us.  Yet  I  urged  my  wife  to 
continue  to  trust  the  Lord,  and  chose  out  important 
doctrines  to  instruct  and  exhort  her. 

We  had  gone  about  three  miles  when  a  large  crowd 
ran  out  of  a  village  and  surrounded  us,  accusing  us  of 
scattering  poison  and  smearing  blood  to  injure  peo- 


254      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

pie.  With  one  voice  they  shouted  that  they  would 
burn  us  to  death.  As  they  would  not  permit  us  to  make 
answer,  we  could  only  await  death.  Suddenly  one 
of  them  said :  "He  is  a  scholar,  and  probably  has  not 
done  these  harmful  things.  If  he  goes  on,  he  must 
pass  through  the  village  of  Lou  Tzu,  where  there  is 
an  altar,  on  which  they  have  already  killed  two.  If 
he  is  an  evildoer,  they  will  surely  burn  him;  he  can 
not  pass  through  that  village."  Having  heard  this, 
they  let  us  go.  When  we  had  reached  Lou  Tzu  we 
met  a  man  named  Chang,  with  whom  I  was  not  ac- 
quainted. When  we  entered  into  conversation,  I  found 
that  he  was  from  the  same  neighborhood  as  myself, 
but  the  family  had  lived  in  this  place  for  two  gener- 
ations He  took  us  in,  and  found  for  us  a  little  hut  in 
a  vacant  field  in  which  to  live.  Twice  that  night  did 
men  come  looking  for  us,  saying  that  we  were  evil- 
doers. Once  we  were  saved  by  a  local  scholar,  and 
once  by  Mr.  Chang.  I  could  not  help  thinking  how 
many  times  we  had  been  saved  since  we  were  on  the 
roof  of  the  church  that  night.  Every  time  we  were 
just  about  to  die,  but  had  not  died.  This  made  it  very 
evident  that  the  Lord  was  with  us,  and  had  not  for- 
saken us.  I  was  greatly  comforted,  my  heart  grew 
stronger,  and  I  thanked  God. 

The  next  day  I  arose  early,  and  discussed  with  my 
wife  a  plan  for  them  to  remain  where  they  were,  while 
I  went  to  the  city  to  make  inquiries  for  my  daughter, 
and  also  to  look  up  the  Church  members.  At  this  time 
my  wife's  heart  also  was  courageous,  and  she  was  very 
willing  to  remain  with  the  child  in  the  little  hut  in 
the  wilderness,  and  await  my  return.  I  promised  to 
be  back  in  two  days.  If  I  did  not  come  in  that  time 
it  would  be  because  I  had  been  killed,  and  the  mother 
and  child  must  arrange  some  plan  for  getting  back  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      255 

the  old  home.     My  wife  said,  "If  harm  comes  to  you, 
we  will  not  live  either."     I  said:    "You  must  not  on 
any   account   kill   yourselves;   that   is  breaking   God's 
law.     No  matter  what  happens,  you  must  obey  God's 
will."    After  I  had  exhorted  her  several  times,  I  started 
for  Peking,  passing  many  altars  on  the  road  without 
being  questioned.    By  the  time  I  reached  the  city,  some 
of  the  brethren  had  been  killed,  and  the  rest  had  fled, 
so  that  there  was  no  place  to  go.     That  night  I  slept 
at  the  foot  of  the  city  wall.    Across  the  moat  were  many 
groups  of  Boxers,  firing  crackers  and  shouting;  yet 
I  did  not  greatly  fear.    At  daybreak,  when  they  opened 
the  city  gate,  I  entered  with  the  crowd,  and  learned  for 
the   first    time    that    the    Methodist    church    was    still 
standing.     I  rushed  for  the  church,  and  found  many 
of  the  brethren  together  there,  and  my  daughter  also 
among  them.     Sorrow  and  joy  struggled  for  mastery, 
for    my    daughter    on    that    awful    night,    after    we 
lost  each  other,  had  wandered  on  the  street,  and  was 
dragged  by  the  Boxers  to  their  altar.    When  they  ques- 
tioned her,  she  spoke  the  truth,  saying :  "My  father  an  1 
my  little  brother  are  Church  members.    I  have  not  been 
baptized ;  but  I  also  believe  in  the  Lord."    The  Boxers 
were  about  to  kill  her,  when  certain  neighbors  with 
whom  she  had  slight  acquaintance,  being  fortunately 
present,  came  near  to  the  altar  and  pleaded  for  my 
daughter.      The   Boxers   therefore   released   her,   and 
some  one  took  her  to  my  former  residence.    There  were 
many  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  who  came,  re- 
viling  her.      Fortunately,    that    Sunday     a     Christian 
named  Lin,  who  had  lived  in  the  same  court  with  us 
and  fied  with  us  that  night,  separating  from  us  next 
day,  having  gone  to  the  home  of  relatives  by  whom  he 
was  not  received,  had  returned  to  his  old  abode  and  was 
with  my  daughter.    He  thought  to  himself,  "If  we  stay 


250      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

here  it  is  likely  that  we  shall  escape  harm?"  So  he 
took  my  daughter  with  him  and  went  to  the  Methodist 
mission. 

When  I  saw  my  daughter  she  cried  so  hard  that 
she  could  not  speak.  I  spoke  a  few  words  of  comfort, 
then  hastily  made  my  way  back  to  Lou  Tzu  village 
for  my  wife  and  child.  In  two  or  three  places  I  saw 
heaps  of  ashes  where  men  had  been  burned,  and  passed 
Boxer  altars,  but  no  one  questioned  me.  The  next  day 
we  hired  a  cart  and  entered  the  city.  On  the  road  we 
met  five  or  six  hundred  Boxers  marching  in  ranks. 
When  they  saw  us,  they  all  stopped  and  looked  at  us. 
We  were  about  three  hundred  feet  from  each  other  on 
two  roads.  I  at  once  thought  that  they  would  surely 
kill  us,  so  I  silently  prayed  to  the  Lord.  Suddenly 
beside  the  road  a  number  of  farmers  shouted  out,  "Go 
on,"  and  the  Boxers  went  on.  When  we  reached  the 
city  we  left  the  cart  and  went  on  foot.  The  street 
showed  evidences  of  the  great  disturbance ;  but  no  one 
questioned  us.  We  arrived  safely  at  the  Methodist 
mission,  our  family  was  reunited,  and  we  had  also  the 
company  of  all  the  brethren.  On  the  third  day  there- 
after we  moved  with  all  the  rest  to  Legation  Street, 
where  all  were  protected  by  God  himslf,  and  were  not 
overcome  by  the  attacks  of  soldiers  and  Boxers,  until 
at  last  the  Lord  used  the  soldiers  of  foreign  countries 
to  scatter  our  enemies,  and  we  were  released  from  the 
grievous  siege  and  saved  from  the  murderous  intent 
of  our  enemies.  If  we  consider  simply  our  one  family, 
how  great  was  the  Lord's  mercy,  and  how  marvelous ! 
It  is  beyond  men's  imagination.  Whenever  we  came 
to  the  extreme  peril,  there  was  a  man  to  speak  a  word 
for  us  and  release  us.  This  was  all  the  plan  of  God 
to  save  us  from  the  hands  of  our  enemies.  I  never  can 
forget  the  Lord's  mercy. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      257 

TS'UI  YUEII 

[Ts'ui  Yuch,  a  yoiinp^  man  about  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  had  been  for  some  years  a  student  in  the  Pres- 
byterian Boys'  School.  On  graduation,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  forego  his  coveted  college  course  on  account 
of  the  necessity  of  supporting  his  mother,  rendered  al- 
most helpless  by  a  paralytic  shock.  For  three  years 
previous  to  the  outbreak  he  had  been  assistant  teacher 
in  the  Boys'  School.] 

In  the  afternoon  of  June  13th  I  heard  that  the  Box- 
ers were  about  to  burn  all  the  churches  in  Peking. 
Shortly  after  six  o'clock  I  set  out  with  my  mother  to 
flee  from  Second  Street.  We  left  everything  behind 
us,  except  a  revolver  in  my  belt  to  protect  us  from  the 
Boxers.  We  fled  to  First  Street,  to  the  house  of  a 
Church  member,  hoping  to  remain  there  until  morning, 
and  then  plan  a  way  of  escape.  I  had  not  thought 
of  his  being  a  turncoat ;  but  he  pushed  my  mother  and 
myself  out  of  the  house  and  fastened  the  door.  We  left 
First  Street  and  went  to  the  west,  where  a  friend  of 
mine  had  a  shop.  Mother  and  I  found  his  shop,  but 
he  also  drove  us  out.  Again  we  went  toward  the  west 
with  heavy  hearts  and  weeping,  until  we  came  to  the 
district  magistrate's  yamen,  the  front  door  of  which 
was  not  bolted.  I  told  my  mother  to  sit  there  while 
I  went  to  find  a  hiding-place.  Back  and  forth  I  wan- 
dered for  half  an  hour,  but  could  find  no  place,  so  I 
returned  to  the  yamen  to  find  my  mother  gone.  In 
front  of  the  gate  were  a  few  soldiers  on  guard.  Fear- 
ing that  my  mother  had  been  killed,  my  heart  was  in- 
expressibly sad.  The  soldiers,  perceiving  that  I  was 
a  Christian,  pursued  me  with  swords  and  other  weap- 
ons.    My  mother  had  herself  found  a  small  place  and 

17 


258      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

hidden.  When  the  soldiers  pursued  me,  I  screamed 
and  cried  out,  and  my  mother  heard  me.  She  came 
out  to  me,  and  my  pursuers,  though  they  overtook  me, 
yet  did  nothing.  By  this  time  it  was  about  ten  in  the 
evening.  Again  my  mother  and  I  went  in  a  westwardly 
direction.  At  daybreak  we  reached  the  Te  Sheng 
Gate,  having  endured  unspeakable  shame  and  perse- 
cution. Here  in  the  early  morning,  we  hired  a  cart 
and  rode  to  the  south  of  the  four  memorial  arches  in  the 
Eastern  City,  to  the  home  of  a  relative,  because  I  had 
heard  a  report  that  the  Methodist  mission  had  already 
been  burned.  Leaving  my  mother,  I  went  to  see 
whether  the  report  was  true.  Finding  all  safe  there,  I 
returned  to  the  house  of  my  relatives  for  my  mother. 
Fearing  harm  to  themselves  from  her  presence,  they 
had  already  sent  her  away  on  a  cart  to  the  North  City. 
I  went  on  in  search  of  her,  and  after  a  long  time  found 
her  body  beside  the  road  near  the  An  Ting  Gate,  her 
head  hacked  almost  to  pieces  with  a  sword.  I  could 
do  nothing  for  her,  neither  bury  her,  nor  even  touch 
her  body,  nor  manifest  any  recognition,  or  my  body 
would  soon  have  lain  in  a  similar  position.  With  a 
heart  almost  breaking,  I  hastened  back  to  the  Meth- 
odist mission,  whence  I  went  with  others  to  the  lega- 
tions. 

[This  young  man  rendered  faithful  service  in  the 
erection  of  the  fortifications,  and  later  assisted  at  the 
mill  in  the  preparation  of  flour.  He  has,  since  the 
siege,  left  lucrative  employment  with  the  Japanese,  that 
he  might  teach  and  preach  the  gospel.] 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      259 


PASTOR  T  ENG  AND  FAMILY 
BY    REV.    C.    H.    KENN 

Mr.  T'eng  Ying  was  a  quiet,  unobtrusive  man, 
never  thrusting  himself  forward,  yet  of  a  very  digni- 
fied personahty,  and  a  very  lovable  spirit.  Though 
not  rapid  in  his  movements  or  address,  he  commanded 
respectful  attention.  For  a  Chinese,  he  was  a  great 
reader,  and  above  the  average  in  ability  to  digest  what 
he  read,  and  to  quote  liberally  and  to  edification.  He 
possessed  a  good  vein  of  quiet  humor,  and  thoroughly 
enjoyed  a  good  story.  His  language  was  always  of 
the  choicest,  and  his  literary  style  clear  and  forcible. 
I  wtII  remember  how  glad  I  felt  whenever  Pastor 
T'eng  preached  during  my  first  months  in  Peking. 
Even  from  the  beginning  I  always  caught  something 
from  his  preaching,  as  he  was  so  moderate  in  his  speed 
and  so  simple  in  his  language  that  even  the  new  mis- 
sionary, in  his  first  struggles  with  the  language,  could 
go  home  after  service  encouraged  to  feel  that  he  had 
really  understood  some  of  the  sermon.  Half  in  my 
own  interest  and  half  m  theirs,  I  undertook  to  give  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  T'eng  some  English  lessons  during  that  first 
year  in  Peking,  and  highly  appreciative  were  they  of 
those  efforts  on  their  behalf.  They  were  bright  pupils, 
and  made  good  progress.  Mr.  T'eng  was  very  faithful 
in  his  attendance  on  the  street  chapel,  and  did  not 
content  himself  with  a  mere  perfunctory  performance 
of  his  duty  of  preaching  to  the  heathen,  but  sought  to 
provide  himself,  by  leading  and  thinking,  with  new  and 
fresh  thought  to  attract  and  stimulate  attention  and 
inquiry.  In  this  way  many  were  drawn  into  the  domes- 
tic chapel  to  learn  more  of  the  truth ;  and  in  personal 
dealing  with  them  Pastor  T'eng  had  the  advantage 
of  the  missionary  in  a  more  intimate  acquaintance  with 


26o      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  Confucian  and  Buddhist  point  of  view.  In  social 
gatherings  of  the  Church  he  was  always  easy  in  his 
bearing,  and  ready  with  a  good  story  for  amusement 
or  instruction.     He  was  gentle  almost  to  a  fault. 

Mrs.  T'eng  was  fully  her  husband's  equal  in  every 
respect,  and  he  appreciated  the  fact  that  he  possessed 
a  treasure  in  her.  Bright,  keen,  witty,  a  woman  of 
immense  energy  and  intellectual  power,  she  repre- 
sented the  possibilities  of  attainment  for  Chinese  woman- 
hood better  than  any  other  person  whom  I  ever  met. 
She  saw  to  the  bottom  of  things,  and  grasped  their 
bearing  upon  life  and  character  with  remarkable  quick- 
ness and  clearness.  The  mother  of  five  children  and 
the  mother-in-law  of  another  trained  in  the  T'eng  home 
for  some  years,  she  had  reason  to  be  proud  of  them  all, 
especially  as  the  daughter-in-law  had  to  overcome  an 
unfortunate  heredity.  Mrs.  T'eng,  who  still  a  thorough 
Chinese,  had  yet  assimilated  much  of  the  refinement 
of  the  foreign  ladies  with  whom  she  was  associated, 
until  she  had  almost  a  foreigner's  perception  of  the 
''fitness  of  things."  Few  could  excel  her  in  her  capacity 
for  accomplishment.  She  could  sit  or  stand  braiding 
the  hair  of  one  child,  while  at  the  same  time  she  listened 
to  three  children  reciting  different  memoriter  lessons 
at  the  same  time,  never  failing  to  detect  the  mistakes 
of  any  of  them.  Her  children  were  well  brought  up 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  As  native 
head  of  the  Girls'  Boarding-school,  she  commanded  the 
general  respect  and  affection  of  the  pupils,  and  the  com- 
plete confidence  of  the  missionary  in  charge,  who  was 
on  terms  of  intimate  friendship  with  her.  As  pastor's 
wife,  she  found  time  for  much  helpful  visitation,  not 
only  in  the  homes  of  pupils,  but  in  many  others.  In 
the  prayer-meeting  she  not  infrequently  took  part,  and 
always  to  edification. 


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in 

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r.       >•       — 

1.   i:    ^ 


C 


CHINA'S  UUUK  UF  MARTYRS      261 

Of  the  chiklrcn  of  the  family,  the  eldest,  John,  at 
nineteen  years  of  age,  though  he  had  not  completed  his 
course  in  the  Methodist  college,  was  yet  acting  as  an 
assistant  professor  in  the  Imperial  University,  while 
his  wife  assisted  in  our  Girls'  Boarding-school,  where 
the  oldest  daughter,  Hannah,  had  also  taken  a  position 
as  teacher.  Two  younger  boys,  James  and  Peter,  were 
among  the  most  promising  pupils  in  the  Boys'  Board- 
ing-school, while  the  youngest  daughter,  Mary,  after 
much  careful  training  in  the  home,  had  entered  the 
school  to  prepare  herself  for  usefulness. 

Nothing  definite  has  ever  been  learned  of  the  man- 
ner of  the  death  of  this  family,  except  that  the  entire 
family  was  murdered  in  a  temple  in  Peking.  There 
is  nothing,  at  least  in  the  experience  of  the  native 
Church,  which  impresses  us  as  more  absolutely  in- 
scrutable than  the  strange  providence  which  permitted 
the  slaughter  of  this  entire  family  by  the  Boxers. 

A  brave;  boy 

He  was  the  son  of  one  of  the  Presbyterian  pastors, 
and  but  twelve  years  of  age,  a  bright  boy,  trained  by 
a  rarely- judicious  and  lovely  Christian  mother,  to  whom 
her  husband  owed  his  conversion  and  his  call  to  the 
ministry.  On  the  night  of  the  awful  massacres  the 
family  became  scattered  in  the  darkness  and  Wen  I, 
with  his  father  and  a  younger  sister,  wandered  across 
the  city  to  the  home  of  a  heathen  cousin,  four  or  five 
miles  away.  This  cousin  was  by  no  means  cordial 
in  his  welcome,  and  when  Mr.  Wang  asked  him  to 
shelter  these  two  children  for  a  while,  until  he  could 
find  a  place  of  safety  for  them,  the  cousin  said  it  was 
impossible.  If  the  Boxers  should  come  along  and  en- 
ter the  house,  they  would  ask  him  if  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian.   Being  answered  in  the  negative,  they  would  ask 


262      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

him  if  there  were  any  Christians  in  his  house.  If  he 
should  say,  "No,"  they  would  ask  each  one  individually, 
and  the  little  boy  would  tell  the  truth.  "Then,"  said 
the  cousin,  "they  will  kill  him  and  his  sister,  and  will 
also  kill  me  and  my  family  for  harboring  Christians 
and  trying  to  conceal  them."  But  the  father  pleaded 
so  hard  that  the  cousin  finally  yielded,  urging,  how- 
ever, the  utmost  haste. 

The  father  hastened  forth  on  his  perilous  errand, 
and  as  soon  as  he  was  gone  the  cousin  turned  to  the 
little  boy  and  said,  "Now,  if  the  Boxers  come  along, 
do  n't  you  dare  to  say  that  you  are  a  Christian !" 

The  little  boy  replied,  "I  shall  not  dare  to  say 
anything  else,  for  the  Bible  tells  me  that  I  must  not 
deny  my  Savior." 

"Well,  do  n't  say  anything  about  it,  then.  Just 
take  a  stick  of  incense  and  let  it  burn  in  front  of  the 
image,  and  the  Boxers  will  go  away." 

"The  Bible  says  that  we  must  not  worship  idols. 
I  can  not  do  it." 

"Well,  if  you  can  not  do  that  much  to  help  those 
who  are  trying  to  save  you,  out  you  go !"  And  he 
drove  him  out  on  the  street  and  shut  the  door. 

There  was  no  place  to  go;  there  was  nothing  to 
do  but  pray ;  and  pray  he  did.  After  a  time  his  cousin 
opened  the  door  and  asked  him  if  he  was  ready,  but 
was  met  by  the  statement  that  he  never  would  be  ready. 
Again,  after  some  time,  he  asked  the  question.  The 
boy  replied :  "You  may  kill  me  yourself  if  you  like, 
but  I  never  will  say  that  I  am  not  a  Christian,  or  burn 
the  incense."  The  cousin  was  so  moved  by  the  boy's 
fidelity  that  he  took  him  in  and  kept  him  until  he  was 
taken  to  his  father  by  a  messenger;  and  he  was  saved 
in  the  Methodist  mission,  and  afterwards  in  the  British 
Legation. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      263 


ADOrTKD  BY  OFFICERS 

The  marvelous  way  in  which  the  two  sons  of  Mr. 
Cluing,  of  the  Presbyterian  mission  in   Peking,  were 
saved,  reminds  one  of  the  half-fabulous  annals  of  old 
Roman  days.   K'ao  En  (Trust  in  God's  Grace)  was  ten 
years  old,  and  Kan  En  (Thanks  for  God's  Grace)  was 
eight  years  old.    Mr.  Chung,  whose  home  was  in  Shan- 
tung,  had   graduated    from   the   Presbyterian   college 
at  Teng  Chou  Fu,  and  had  also  received  the  first  de- 
gree in  the  civil  examinations.     For  a  time  he  was 
Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  Imperial  University 
in  Peking.     Then  the  Reactionaries  came  into  power, 
the  Boxers  killed  and  burned  on  the  streets  of  Peking, 
and  Mr.  Chung  and  his  family  fled  from  their  home 
in  the  Second  Street  Presbyterian  mission  just  before 
flames  devoured  it.    Separating  for  greater  safety,  Mr. 
Chung's  father  took  his  two  grandsons  to  the  home 
of  a  friendly  neighbor  in  a  grain-shop.     Mr.  Chung 
concealed  his  wife,  baby,  and  two  daughters  in  a  small 
vegetable-shop,  and  then  went  in  search  of  the  boys 
and  their  grandfather,  but  failed  to  get  any  trace  of 
them.    Half  distracted,  he  rushed  back  to  the  vegetable- 
shop,  only  to  find  that  his  wife  and  children  had  been 
driven  out  into  the  streets  by  the  frightened  proprietor. 
Were  all  of  his  loved  ones  in  the  hands  of  the  Boxers  ? 
The  night  was  spent  in  anxious  search  and  perilous 
wanderings.     About  ten  o'clock  the  next  morning,  a 
man  noticed  his  careworn  face,  and  asked,  "Are  you 
looking  for  a  woman  with  a  baby?"    Then  he  directed 
his  steps  to  a  place  near  the  ruins  of  his  home,  where 
he  found  his  loved  ones.     The  helpless  ones  had  been 
protected  by  Chinese  soldiers.     After  a  day  or  two  he 
succeeded  in  hiring  a  cart,  which  took  them  to  the 
Methodist   mission.     Day  after  day   he   went  out  to 


264      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

search  amid  scenes  of  carnage  for  the  missing  members 
of  his  family,  but  not  until  after  the  siege  of  Peking 
did  he  know  of  their  fate. 

Grandfather  Chung  heard  in  the  grain-shop  that 
his  married  daughter,  Mrs.  Wang,  had  been  separated 
from  her  husband  and  sons  that  terrible  night,  and 
that,  with  a  daughter  and  daughter-in-law,  she  had  fled 
outside  the  An  Ting  Gate,  and  was  hiding  in  a  cave- 
like shelter  in  a  ravine  by  the  Temple  of  Earth.  Every 
day  for  a  week  he  visited  them,  taking  food  to  them. 
Then  came  a  day  when  he  did  not  return,  and  the  two 
little  boys  in  the  grain-shop  knew  that  he  had  been 
killed  by  the  terrible  Boxers. 

Such  careful  search  was  being  made  for  the  boys 
that  they  were  given  some  money  and  sent  out  to  join 
their  aunt.  After  they  had  spent  a  few  days  in  the 
little  cave,  Mrs.  Wang,  knowing  that  they  could  not 
long  remain  concealed  from  the  Boxers,  told  some 
friendly  soldiers  that  if  they  would  care  for  them  they 
might  adopt  them.  Very  soon  after  this,  Mrs.  Wang 
and  her  daughters  were  slain,  but  the  soldiers  had  taken 
the  boys  into  the  camp  of  General  Sun. 

In  this  camp  lived  Captain  Li,  who  had  received 
imperial  orders  to  exterminate  the  "foreign  devils" 
and  their  followers.  But  God  willed  that  he  should 
be  his  instrument  for  saving  the  bright,  manly  Chris- 
tian boys.  They  won  his  heart,  and  he  decided  to  adopt 
them  as  his  sons.  But  he  was  not  permitted  to  keep 
them  both.  His  superior  officer.  Colonel  Lo,  took  a 
fancy  to  them  and  demanded  that  one  be  given  to  him ; 
so,  very  reluctantly.  Captain  Li  parted  with  the  younger 
one.  The  Boxers,  learning  where  the  boys  were,  made 
several  desperate  attempts  to  capture  them,  but  were 
driven  back  by  the  soldiers  with  the  loss  of  a  number  of 
the  Boxer  men. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      265 

Early  in  the  summer  Captan  Li  was  relieved  from 
duty  because  of  a  serious  wound,  and  went  into  Peking 
to  live  at  a  temple  only  a  few  hundred  rods  from  the 
old  site  of  the  Presbyterian  mission.  K  ao  En  lived 
with  the  captain's  wife  not  far  away,  and  many  a  time 
when  he  went,  guarded  by  soldiers,  to  visit  his  adopted 
father,  he  rode  past  the  ruins  of  his  old  home. 

The  13th  of  August  came,  and  the  allies  were  near 
the  gates  of  the  Capital.  Captain  Li  took  K'ao  En  with 
his  family,  and  lodged  that  night  at  a  temple  outside 
the  city.  August  14th,  famous  for  the  relief  of  Peking, 
they  traveled  slowly  toward  the  southwest.  Early  the 
next  morning  the  empress  dowager,  emperor,  empress, 
and  heir  apparent  fled  from  Peking.  They  took  the 
same  route  followed  by  Captain  Li,  but  traveled  faster, 
and  so  overtook  him.  K'ao  En  had  a  good  view  of  the 
imperial  train,  and  saw  the  heir  apparent  get  down 
from  his  cart  and  drink  from  a  roadside  well. 

Colonel  Lo  was  in  Peking  with  General  Sun  when 
the  allies  arrived,  and  he  fought  with  the  Japanese 
east  of  the  city.  Then  General  Sun  retreated  toward 
Pao  Ting  Fu.  Several  days  before  starting,  however, 
Colonel  Lo  had  sent  Kan  En,  with  a  guard  and  a  tutor, 
to  go  ahead  to  Pao  Ting  Fu.  Learning  that  his  older 
brother  was  in  the  city  with  Captain  Li,  the  lad  slipped 
away,  and  the  lonely  brothers  had  a  happy  reunion. 
But  their  joy  was  short-lived.  When  Colonel  Lo  ar- 
rived he  made  a  careful  search  for  Kan  En,  and,  though 
he  tried  to  hide  away,  he  was  soon  back  in  the  colonel's 
tent. 

A  few  days  later  K'ao  En  was  on  his  way  to  Shan- 
tung with  Captain  Li,  and  Kan  En  was  journeying 
across  the  mountains  into  Shansi.  Months  passed. 
Whether  dwelling  in  inns  or  in  tents,  the  little  lad 
had  all  that  money  could  buy  to  make  him  happy.    Two 


266      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

private  tutors  gave  him  daily  lessons,  five  hundred 
soldiers  obeyed  his  commands,  the  longing  for  home 
and  dear  ones  grew  less  painful.  Later  Colonel  Lo 
marched  eastward  to  Chi  Nan  Fu,  the  capital  of  Shan- 
tung, and  camped  only  four  miles  distant  from  Cap- 
tain Li.  The  two  little  captives  were  again  near  to- 
gether, though  far  from  home. 

In  March,  K'ao  En,  having  learned  that  his  father 
was  still  living,  persuaded  Captain  Li  to  write  to  him. 
The  delivery  of  the  letter  was  remarkable.  The  postal 
system  was  in  confusion,  the  address  on  the  letter 
was  vague.  The  messenger  searched  widely  for  Mr. 
Chung,  but  was  about  to  abandon  further  search  when 
he  happened  to  ask  a  stranger  if  he  knew  a  Mr.  Chung. 
This  stranger  was  Mr.  Chung's  nephew.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting coincidence  that  Mr.  Chung,  who,  by  sending 
letters  in  all  directions,  had  obtained  a  clue  to  the 
whereabouts  of  his  boys,  and  who  was  grieved  that  they 
were  away  from  all  Christian  influences,  had  asked 
prayers  for  them  at  a  meeting  only  the  night  before. 

The  letter  gave  hope  that  the  boys  might  be  se- 
cured if  sent  for.  Almost  wild  with  joy,  Mr.  Chung 
started  out  on  the  long  journey.  Prince  Su  sent  a 
telegram  and  two  soldiers.  Li  Hung  Chang  gave  his 
protection,  and  the  missionaries  gave  him  a  letter  to 
help  him  on  his  way.  Mr.  Chung  found  Captain  Li 
friendly  and  willing  to  restore  to  him  his  son,  but 
Colonel  Lo  was  at  first  altogether  unwilling.  When 
Mr.  Chung  called  on  Colonel  Lo,  he  had  to  pass  right 
by  Kan  En,  who  was  under  the  careful  surveillance 
of  his  teachers.  Neither  father  nor  son  spoke  a  word. 
When  Colonel  Lo  found  that  Mr.  Chung  was  the  little 
captive's  own  father,  he  reluctantly  consented  to  part 
with  the  child,  and  sent  him  to  General  Sun's  head- 
quarters to  be  given  into  the  care  of  the  anxious  father. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      267 

General  Sun  said,  "I  fought  several  battles  with  the 
Boxers  for  these  boys,  and  Prince  T'uan  himself  called 
me  pro-foreign  because  I  would  not  give  them  up." 

Mr.  Chung  gave  a  feast  to  Colonel  Lo,  Captain 
Li,  and  other  Chi  Nan  Fu  friends,  to  show  his  grati- 
tude for  the  preservation  of  his  beloved  sons ;  then  he 
started  with  them  for  Peking.  What  words  can  de- 
scribe the  joy  of  the  reunited  family? 

In  Peking,  another  feast  was  spread  by  the  happy 
father,  and  among  the  guests  were  Prince  Su,  Governor 
Hu,  Dr.  Martin,  and  a  number  of  missionaries. 

Four  Christian  Alliance  Martyrs 

BY    MISS  ANNIE   H.   GOWANS 

ch'ou  tzu 

Ch'ou  Tzu  means  **a  stench,  putrid,  disreputable!" 
Rather  a  strange  name  to  choose  for  a  baby  girl,  is  it 
not  ?  Her  parents'  idea  was  to  try  and  deceive  the  gods 
into  thinking  that  their  baby  girl  was  not  loved  and 
not  wanted.  If  the  gods  could  be  made  to  believe  that, 
then  she  might  be  spared  to  them  perhaps,  and  not 
taken  away  in  infancy  as  other  children  had  been  taken. 

Despite  her  unlovely  name,  Ch'ou  Tzu  grew  to  be 
a  very  winsome  little  girl.  When  she  was  about  seven 
years  old  she  was  somehow  attracted  to  the  mission 
day-school,  and,  once  enrolled,  she  never  changed  in 
her  love  for  the  school  and  teacher.  Her  mother  im- 
plored her  not  to  go  near  those  terrible  foreigners ;  but 
the  missionaries  had  no  terror  whatever  for  the  child. 
By  and  by  she  coaxed  the  frightened  mother  to  come 
and  see  for  herself  what  was  the  charm  that  so  attracted 
her  child.  Some  years  after  both  were  baptized  on 
the  same  day,  and  what  a  changed  woman  Mrs.  Li  was! 
From  a  haughy,  proud  woman  who  could  brook  no  sug- 


268      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

gestion  of  reproof,  she  became  a  gentle,  peaceable  fol- 
lower of  Christ.  Truly  "3.  little  child  shall  lead  them." 
One  Sunday  afternoon,  when  the  children  were  gather- 
ing within  the  yard,  there  came  a  hasty,  impetuous 
knock  at  the  door.  When  it  was  opened  Ch'ou  Tzu 
burst  in  saying,  ''O,  pray !  pray  quick !  I  want  to 
fight."  Some  one  prayed  with  her  at  once.  The  child, 
the  flashing  light  entirely  gone  from  the  bright  black 
eyes,  said,  "Now,  I  do  not  wish  to  fight ;  the  desire  has 
all  gone."  On  one  of  our  regular  prayer-meeting  days 
she  found,  on  her  arrival,  that  very  few  women  had 
cared  to  attend.  *'Why,  where  are  the  people?"  she 
asked.  ''I  '11  go  and  bring  some  in,"  and  very  soon 
she  appeared  with  quite  a  string  of  women  behind  her. 
"Where  did  you  find  so  many  people?"  we  asked  her 
afterwards.  "O,  I  just  went  out  and  asked  them  how 
they  could  dream  of  buying  and  sewing,  or,  in  fact, 
doing  anything  else,  when  anything  so  important  as  a 
gospel  meeting  was  being  held."  On  June  6,  1900,  our 
last  meeting  at  Ch'i  Shou  Wei  was  held.  It  was  the 
day  we  left  the  mission  premises.  Despite  the  disturbed 
state  of  the  neighborhood,  the  women  gathered  as  they 
were  wont  to  do  for  the  midweek  prayer-meeting.  The 
subject  was  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John :  "In  my 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions."  "Let  not  your 
heart  be  troubled."  What  a  precious  meeting  it  was, 
but  how  few  of  us  realized  that  almost  all  of  that  little 
company  would  be  called  to  those  heavenly  mansions 
ere  we  met  again !  "Please,"  said  our  little  girl  friend, 
"might  we  sing  'God  be  with  you  till  we  meet  again; 
till  we  meet  at  Jesus'  feet  ?'  "  Was  it  prophetic  ?  When 
we  went  to  look  up  the  family  after  the  siege,  there 
was  no  trace  of  father,  mother,  brothers,  or  Ch'ou  Tzu. 
"All  moved  away,"  said  the  neighbors,  which  we  knew 
onlv  too  well  meant  "All  massacred  by  the  Boxers." 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      269 


TEACIIKR  CHIN 

We  first  heard  of  him  through  our  old  gatekeeper, 
who,  although  he  did  not  always  do  his  work  perfectly, 
was  never  happier  than  when  speaking  about  the 
Savior.  Consequently,  many  men  were  drawn  to  the 
gatehouse  to  hear  him  talk,  and  later  to  the  little  out- 
side chapel.  He  reported  that  there  were  four  fortune- 
tellers who  were  attending  regularly  every  night.  A 
few  weeks  later  two  had  gone  back,  not  being  able  to 
stand  the  ostracism  consequent  upon  a  confession  of 
Christ ;  another  was  going  to  try  to  make  a  living  by 
selling  medicines;  and  the  last,  ]\lr.  Chin,  had  sent  his 
books  and  whatever  he  possessed  relating  to  fortune- 
telling,  to  the  mission  to  be  burned.  Live  or  die,  he 
said,  he  could  not  go  on  with  that  business.  Unre- 
servedly he  yielded  himself  up  to  God,  and,  in  spite  of 
great  persecution  from  every  member  of  his  family, 
father,  brothers,  and  wife,  he  held  true  to  his  new  treas- 
ure. For  a  time  life  was  very  hard,  as  his  means  of 
livelihood  had  been  taken  away,  but,  being  a  versatile 
and  well-educated  man,  he  managed  to  keep  the  wolf 
from  the  door.  Instead  of  grumbling  over  his  changed 
fortunes,  he  professed  to  be  glad  to  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  suffering  for  Jesus'  sake.  After  some  time 
a  teacher  of  the  Chinese  language  was  needed  at  the 
mission,  and  just  as  a  substitute  for  a  few  days  Mr. 
Lhin  was  called  in.  He  proved  so  efficient  in  this  line ; 
so  capable  of  making  a  new  student  understand ;  so 
interested  in  his  pupil's  progress,  that  we  soon  found 
him  invaluable.  In  reading  the  Bible  he  often  pointed 
out  some  passage  that  had  been  especially  helpful  to 
him.  Once  when  the  portion  was  the  fourth  chapter 
of  Acts,  in  speaking  of  the  persecution  of  the  early 
Church,  he  said ;    "The  gospel  is  like  a  great  stream ; 


270      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

if  one  could  succeed  in  building  a  dam  to  stop  its  course, 
it  would  still  flow  on  in  another  direction.  The  gospel 
must  be  published  all  over  the  world,  and  every  attempt 
to  hinder  it  will  only  make  it  prosper." 

His  parting  message  to  us,  when  he  called  at  the 
American  Legation  to  say  farewell,  was  Exodus  xxiii, 
20:  "Behold  I  send  an  angel  before  thee,  to  keep  thee 
by  the  way,  and  to  bring  thee  into  the  place  which  I 
have  prepared."  When  the  siege  of  Peking  was  over, 
and  some  one  went  to  make  inquiries  about  our  Chinese 
friends,  who  had  believed  themselves  safer  outside,  we 
found  in  Mr.  Chin's  home  a  sorrowing  wife,  father,  and 
brothers,  who  told  us  with  tears  how  the  Boxers  had 
come  to  their  home  and  compelled  their  loved  one  to 
strangle  himself.  We  had  had  great  hope  before  that 
he  might  become  an  evangeHst;  but  if  the  Lord  had 
something  better  for  him  we  can  say,  *'Thy  will  be 
done." 

A  BIBI.E:  WOMAN 

Mrs.  Sung's  change  of  heart  was  most  manifest 
from  the  time  when  she  made  public  confession  of  her 
sins.  Her  great  grief  was  over  the  way  she  had 
treated  her  mother.  For  years  she  had  not  seen  her, 
and  now,  when  her  conscience  was  aroused,  and  she 
set  out  from  home  to  find  her  and  to  make  what  repa- 
ration lay  in  her  power,  it  was  only  to  find  that  it  was  too 
late.  Being  convicted  of  sin  in  regard  to  her  want  of 
deferential  respect  to  her  husband^  she  awoke  him  in 
the  night,  and  in  great  contrition  asked  his  forgiveness 
for  frequently  reviling  him.  He,  a  poor  man,  quite 
overcome  by  such  an  overture  on  the  part  of  his  better 
half,  said,  *'Do  not  be  troubled;  as  long  as  you  do  not 
revile  the  neighbors,  it  does  not  matter  about  me." 
From  this  time  her  progress  was  most  rapid,  her  sin- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      271 

cerity  unquestioned,  and  the  year  1900  found  her  in- 
stalled as  a  IJible  woman,  going  from  house  to  house 
amongst  her  own  people,  trying  to  win  them  to  Christ. 
Patient  with  others,  punctual,  willing  to  follow  any 
suggestion,  she  proved  a  valuable  helper.  Once,  when 
holding  a  meeting  with  a  missionary  in  one  of  the  wo- 
men's houses,  a  great  altercation  was  heard  in  the  court 
outside.  It  became  evident  that  the  presence  of  the 
foreigner  was  the  cause  of  the  trouble,  and  a  man  was 
with  difficulty  held  from  entering  the  room,  stone  and 
knife  in  hand.  The  foreigner  went  quietly  away ;  but 
Mrs.  Sung  staid,  and  when  afterwards  asked  why  she 
had  done  so,  her  answer  was,  *'I  could  not  have  him 
think  we  were  afraid."  True  to  her  conviction  to  the 
last,  her  head  was  severed  from  her  body  in  her  own 
courtyard  because  she  would  not  give  up  her  faith  in 
the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus. 

OIvD  MRS.  KAO 

What  a  loving  soul  she  was !  If  you  felt  tired  and 
discouraged,  her  loving  heart  and  bright  faith  inspired 
you  afresh,  and  made  you  ashamed  of  your  lack  of 
brightness.  From  childhood  up  her  lot  had  been  hard. 
As  second  wife  of  a  Shantung  petty  official,  there  had 
been  for  her  no  peace  in  her  husband's  family,  and 
when  she  first  came  to  the  mission  she  made  her 
living  by  selling  spectacles  and  making  shoe-soles. 
Very  quickly  her  heart  responded  to  her  Savior's  love- 
call,  and  after  her  conversion  it  seemed  as  if  she  never 
could  do  enough  for  those  who  had  been  sent  with 
the  good  news.  She  chose  her  seat  in  meetings  where 
she  could  fan  the  speaker,  without  being  in  the  least 
obtrusive.  She  invariably  gave  the  largest  collections, 
sometimes  as  much  as  she  could  earn  in  two  days. 
.We  have  known  of  her  sharing  her  scanty  bedding  with 


^72      CHINA'S  BOOK  O^  MARTYRS 

some  one  still  poorer  when  she  had  not  enough  money 
to  pay  for  a  room  of  her  own.  Friends  she  had,  who  al- 
though not  rich  in  this  world's  goods,  would  gladly  allow 
her  to  sleep  in  their  homes,  and  then,  as  she  had  not 
a  quiet  spot  in  which  to  pray,  she  would  slip  out  at  day- 
break, and,  watching  for  the  first  quiet  gateway,  would 
keep  her  "morning  watch"  with  the  Lord.  A  few  days 
before  the  siege  of  Peking  began  she  told  us  that  she 
was  repeatedly  threatened  by  the  heathen,  who  told 
her  that  her  days  were  numbered.  "I  have  no  fear," 
she  told  them ;  "you  can  not  hurt  my  soul."  Her  body 
was  found  in  the  city  streets,  after  the  siege,  work  in 
hand.  Faithful  in  little,  she  was  also  faithful  unto 
death,  and  it  is  delightful  to  think  of  that  dear  old  soul 
wearing  the  crown  of  life  which  the  Lord  has  prom- 
ised. 

A  FEW  I.ONDON   MISSION   CHRISTIANS 

One  of  the  London  mission  Church  members,  a  man 
named  Sung,  was  asked  by  a  member  of  the  American 
Board  mission  if  he  could  fly  with  him  and  hide  in  the 
Northern  Hills.  Sung  replied,  "The  Lord  is  able  to 
keep  me  safe  here  in  the  city,  if  it  be  his  will  that  I 
should  live,  therefore  I  would  rather  remain  in  Peking." 
He  did,  and  a  few  days  later  he  was  caught  by  a  party 
of  Boxers.  They  cut  his  throat  in  a  most  brutal  man- 
ner, and  left  him  for  dead  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
His  mother  and  brother,  who  were  not  Christians, 
found  him,  and  carried  him  outside  the  Ch'ien  Gate. 
Here  they  erected  a  little  mat  shed,  and,  placing  him 
in  it,  gradually  nursed  him  back  to  life.  But  before 
the  deep  wound  in  his  throat  had  healed,  the  Boxers, 
like  cruel  bloodhounds,  were  again  on  his  track.  He 
implored  his  mother  and  brother  to  flee  while  there 
was  yet  time.    He  said,  "You  are  not  Christians ;  why 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      2-]^ 

perish  with  me?"  P.ut  as  they  refused  to  go,  he  de- 
cided to  die  himself,  and  thus  leave  them  free  to  escape. 
They  approved  of  his  decision,  and  purchased  three 
kinds  of  poisons,  ail  of  which  he  took  without  any 
serious  effects.  The  Boxers,  by  this  time,  had  arrived 
at  the  Hltlc  hill ;  so,  with  an  imploring  look  to  his 
mother  to  flee,  he,  with  a  large  knife,  inflicted  a  fearful 
wound  on  his  throat.  Thus  the  Boxers  found  him,  ap- 
parently bleeding  to  death,  and  carried  him  to  Prince 
Chuang's  palace,  where  so  many  Christians  were  sen- 
tenced to  death.  There  they  decided  that  he  was  as 
good  as  dead  already,  so  they  simply  threw  his  body  out 
onto  a  heap  of  stones  by  the  roadside.  He  lay  there 
insensible  till  midnight,  when  he  recovered  conscious- 
ness, and  found  the  old  and  new  wounds  had  ceased 
bleeding.  As  he  lay  and  looked  up  at  the  quiet  stars 
softly  shining  in  the  deep-blue  summer  sky,  he  suddenly 
felt  strong  enough  to  raise  himself  and  crawl  away  to 
a  little  hiding-place  he  thought  of  outside  one  of  the 
city  gates.  Here  he  remained  till  the  allies  entered 
Peking.  To  his  great  joy  he  was  discovered  by  a 
European  soldier,  to  whom  he  said  the  only  English 
word  he  knew,  "Boxer,"  pointing  at  the  same  time  to 
his  wounds.  The  soldier  was  very  kind,  and  assisted 
him  into  the  city.  Here  he  found  friends,  who  nursed 
him  until  he  had  quite  recovered  his  usual  health. 
He  has  lately  married  a  very  nice  young  wife,  who 
loves  him  all  the  more  for  the  hideous  scars  on  his 
throat,  the  indelible  witness  of  the  terrible  sufferings 
which  he  endured  because  he  was  a  Christian. 

One  of  the  London  Mission  Endeavorers  wan- 
dered about  homeless  and  penniless  for  more  than  a 
month.  He  at  last  took  refuge  in  a  little  cave  at  the 
Northern  Hills,  and  thoroughly  weakened  by  famine 
and  overfatigue,  lay  down  to  die.  An  old  man  pass- 
i8 


274      CHINA'S  BOOK  OI^  MARTYRS 

ing  the  cave  looked  in,  and  remarking  his  pitiable 
condition,  spoke  kindly  to  him,  and  at  last  shared  with 
him  the  only  food  he  possessed,  a  little  millet.  The 
young  man  subsisted  on  this  raw  food  for  a  few 
days,  then  he  heard  that  the  troops  had  arrived  in 
Peking.  He  hastened  back  to  the  city  and  implored 
help  to  go  and  rescue  one  of  the  American  Board 
schoolgirls,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the 
Boxers,  and  was  to  be  sold  for  immoral  purposes.  Some 
American  soldiers  were  given,  and  he  returned  with 
them  as  guide.  When  he  got  to  the  Boxers'  house  he 
rushed  inside,  and  appearing  at  a  window  he  was  mis- 
taken by  one  of  the  soldiers  for  a  Boxer,  and  shot. 
In  the  confusion  nothing  was  done,  apparently,  to  as- 
certain whether  he  was  dead  or  alive,  and  the  troops 
left  without  recovering  his  body.  It  has  since  been 
learned  that  he  was  only  severely  wounded,  and  being 
found  in  a  fainting  condition  by  his  enemies,  after 
the  troops  left,  he  was  cruelly  murdered,  his  head  being 
stuck  up  on  a  high  joist  near  the  house.  But  the 
schoolgirl  was  rescued  and  delivered  over  to  her 
friends.  ''Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a 
man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends." 

A  Christian  named  Wen,  his  wife,  daughter,  and 
another  young  Christian  woman  and  her  baby,  were 
all  seized  and  taken  before  Prince  Chuang  (brother 
of  Prince  Tuan,  and  one  of  the  leading  Boxer  princes 
in  Peking).  The  baby  was  a  very  engaging  child, 
and  the  mother's  life  was  spared  for  its  sake.  A  serv- 
ant of  an  official  of  high  rank  who  was  present  at  the 
trial,  swore  that  Mr.  Wen  was  not  a  Christian,  but  a 
respectable  carter,  whom  his  master  knew.  This  evi- 
dence, given  in  good  faith,  was  accepted,  and  the 
whole  party  was  liberated.  As  they  left  that  part 
of  the  city,  Wen,  who  was  on  ahead,  was  again  seized 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      275 

by  another  party  of  Boxers,  but  the  rest  of  the  party 
managed  to  escape,  and,  finding  a  hiding-place  with 
true  friends  in  the  country,  remained  there  until  traced 
by  Mr.  Wen  after  the  allies  came  to  Peking.  Mr. 
Wen's  head  was  shaved,  he  was  loaded  with  chains,  and 
in  this  sad  plight  he  was  lead  about  from  village  to  vil- 
lage by  his  captors,  who  stated  that  he  was  an  "erh 
mao-tzu,"  and  that  they  were  taking  him  to  Peking 
to  be  killed,  but  lacked  the  necessary  funds.  While  a 
collection  was  being  taken,  he  was  hooted  at  and  jeered 
at  by  the  crowd,  and  when  a  sufficient  fund  had  been 
levied  the  "show"  moved  on  to  the  next  village.  When 
the  news  reached  the  country  district  that  the  troops 
had  come,  his  jailers  all  took  to  their  heels.  Mr.  Wen 
followed  their  example,  and  also  ran  away  as  fast  as 
he  could,  but  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  he  hardly 
ceased  running  till  he  reached  Peking. 

the;  king's  servants  and  how  they  met  him 

BY  MISS  NEIvI^lE  N.   RUSSEI,!, 

Ten  years  ago  Mr.  Ilsieh,  a  Mohammedan,  first 
made  his  appearance  at  the  North  Church  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  in  Peking.  He  was  about  forty-five  years 
old,  tall  and  large,  of  fine,  courtly  appearance,  with  all 
the  manners  of  the  grave.  Oriental  gentleman  of  the 
old  school.  Not  long  after  his  first  coming,  he  brought 
his  wife.  She  was  small,  quick,  and  talkative.  Both 
were  much  interested  in  the  new  truth,  and  after  a 
few  months  they  asked  to  be  taken  into  the  Church. 
He  was  well  educated,  and  she  at  once  expressed  a  de- 
sire to  learn  to  read. 

It  was  very  evident  that  this  husband  and  wife 
were  deeply  attached  to  each  other.  Three  children 
had  come  for  a  time  to  cheer  their  home.  One  by  one 
they  were  called  away,  and  only  they  two  were  left  to 


2^(i      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

grow  old  together.  They  were  Manchus,  and  so  had 
a  monthly  stipend  from  the  emperor.  The  little  serv- 
ice that  was  asked  of  him  in  return  took  but  a  small 
portion  of  his  time;  so  nearly  every  day  found  him 
at  our  chapel,  first  as  a  seeker  and  listener;  then,  as 
time  went  on,  he  came  to  be  the  right  hand  of  the 
pastor,  and  gave  many  hours  to  preaching  in  the  street 
chapel.  Every  one  respected  and  loved  him.  His  little 
wife  was  most  ambitious,  and  worked  hard  in  learning 
to  read  and  sing.  She  was  ever  ready  to  go  and  call 
on  a  new  family,  and  to  speak  to  her  neighbors  and 
friends.  Theirs  was  a  happy  home,  for  love  for  each 
other  and  for  their  heavenly  Father  filled  their  hearts. 

Several  years  passed;  then  sickness  came,  and  that 
spring  when  Boxers  were  drilling  in  Peking,  Mrs. 
Hsieh,  near  the  end  of  her  long  illness,  during  which 
she  had  been  tenderly  nursed  by  her  husband,  knew 
that  soon  she  would  meet  her  Lord.  Her  Bible  and 
hymn-book  were  her  constant  companions.  People 
who  went  there  always  found  her  reading  or  singing 
to  herself;  and  when  the  Bible-woman  or  foreign 
friends  went,  she  would  send  out  and  have  all  the 
neighbors  in  her  court  come  in  to  hear  about  Jesus. 

A  few  days  before  she  died  the  writer  visited  her, 
and  the  memory  of  that  bright  face  and  the  confidence 
of  her  near  entrance  to  her  new  home  will  ever  be  an 
inspiration.  She  said  in  speaking  of  her  husband,  "I 
tell  him  not  to  mourn ;  we  shall  not  be  separated  long." 
Ah !  did  she,  with  her  clearer  vision,  see  into  the  near 
future,  and  have  a  glimpse  of  that  time  which  should 
unite  them  in  one  short  month? 

The  night  before  she  entered  the  homeland  she 
called  her  husband,  and  told  him  she  thought  the  time 
of  her  leaving  him  had  come.  He  assisted  her  to  put 
on  her  grave-clothes,  and  then  she  told  him  how  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      277 

comb  her  hair ;  this  over,  lie  waited  by  her  side,  either 
reading  or  praying.  She  ralHed  a  Httle  about  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  he  said  he  must  go  and  get 
some  one  to  take  his  place  at  the  gate,  where  he  ought 
to  be  on  guard  for  two  hours.  "No,"  said  she,  "do  your 
duty.  I  will  wait  for  you;  but  don't  be  too  long." 
He  protested,  but  she  insisted,  "I  will  wait  for  you," 
and  with  a  sad  heart  he  went  out. 

He  returned  about  nine  o'clock,  and  as  he  entered 
the  room  she  said  with  a  smile :  "I  could  not  go  while 
you  were  away.  Call  in  the  neighbors  now ;  I  can  not 
stay  any  longer,  and  I  want  them  to  see  how  a  Christian 
dies."  He  did  as  she  requested,  then  took  his  Bible, 
and  read  to  her  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John.  "Now 
pray,"  was  her  last  word,  and  while  he  prayed  the 
dear  partner  of  his  life  passed  on.  "How  peaceful !" 
"Strange  she  was  not  afraid!"  were  the  comments  of 
the  bystanders. 

Now  the  scene  changes.  It  is  a  month  later,  a 
bright,  beautiful  morning,  the  last  week  in  June.  All 
was  turmoil  in  the  city  of  Peking.  For  days  the  Chris- 
tians had  been  sought  for  from  house  to  house.  There 
was  blood  everywhere,  a  howling,  raging  mob  in  pos- 
session of  the  city.  Soldiers  had  gone  through  all  the 
streets,  threatening  with  death  any  who  protected  the 
foreigners  or  Christians.  A  price  was  set  on  their 
heads.  Few  were  those  who  dared  to  stretch  out  a 
helping  hand.  Did  the  Great  Father  know,  did  he  see 
his  children  sufifer  ?  Ah,  yes !  and  while  he  did  not  see 
best  to  remove  the  bitter  cup,  he  did  give  strength  to 
hundreds  to  drink  it  for  his  sake.  Mr.  Hsieh  was  in 
his  room  when  a  neighbor  rushed  in  and  told  him  to 
flee,  as  the  Boxers  were  coming  for  him.  He  knew 
he  could  not  escape,  so  he  put  on  his  best  clothes  and 
went  out  to  meet  them  with  a  smile  on  his  face  and  the 


278      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

step  of  a  king.  He  was  taken  to  Prince  Chuang's 
palace,  and  there,  with  many  kindred  souls,  laid  down 
his  life  for  the  Lord  he  loved.  What  he  said  there  we 
shall  know  when  the  books  are  opened.  The  people 
were  so  astonished  at  his  courage  and  bearing  that  his 
heart  was  taken  out  to  find  the  cause.  Ah!  how  little 
could  they,  with  their  hatred-filled  eyes,  see  the  blessed 
Christ  enthroned  in  that  true,  noble  heart. 

IN  prince;  chuang's  palace: 

Several  of  the  preceding  narratives  have  mentioned 
this  infamous  place.  Prince  Chuang,  the  brother  of 
Prince  Tuan,  the  notorious  Boxer  chief,  was  himself 
one  of  the  most  virulent  of  the  Boxer  leaders.  His 
palace,  with  its  temples  filled  with  hideous  idols  and  its 
extensive  yards,  was  the  scene  of  some  of  the  most 
horrible  tortures  which  were  inflicted  on  Christians 
during  that  reign  of  terror.  Hundreds  were  taken 
there  for  imprisonment  or  trial ;  whether  scores  or 
hundreds  perished  there  will  never  be  known.  Months 
later,  when  missionaries  and  Christians  made  a  sad 
pilgrimage  to  the  place,  the  ground  under  the  over- 
hanging trees  was  still  strewn  with  bones.  The  grim 
walls,  upon  which  still  hung  posters  offering  rewards 
for  the  capture  of  foreigners  and  Christians,  told  no 
story  of  the  revolting  scenes  which  they  had  witnessed. 
Whole  families  were  taken  there  for  trial,  and  non- 
Christian  members  who  were  permitted  to  escape,  after 
witnessing  the  slaughter  of  their  loved  ones,  give  the 
few  details  which  history  will  ever  record.  One  of 
these  knelt  again  on  the  spot  where,  several  months 
earlier,  he  had  knelt  before  an  altar  while  the  wreathing 
smoke  and  fluttering  paper  had  decided  whether  life  or 
death  was  to  be  his  fate.  A  little  girl,  the  only  one 
of  her  family  who  escaped  martyrdom  in  this  Bastile, 


Ihoi.s  IN    l'iviN(  I.  ('nAN(;'s   Pai.ack 


In    Prixck  Chan(;'s    Palacl: 

(Kneeling  for  trial, ) 


In    1*kinck  Chanc's    Pa  lack 

(Oround  strewn  with  bones  of  Christians.) 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      279 

said  that  the  captives  were  very  brave,  and  not  a  scream 
was  heard  during  all  these  weeks  of  agony.  They 
spent  their  time  in  praying  and  singing  and  comfort- 
ing one  another. 

Mrs.  Lin  and  her  three  children  were  among  the 
few  who  escaped  from  this  lions'  den.  Her  husband 
was  dispenser  in  the  London  mission  hospital.  At  their 
hiding-place  in  Peking  they  were  joined  by  Mr.  Chang, 
who  had  returned  to  Peking  to  search  for  his  old  blind 
mother.  Hardly  had  Mr.  Chang  entered  the  house 
when  a  loud  knocking  was  heard  at  the  gate.  One 
of  Mr.  Lin's  little  boys  opened  it.  "Who  are  these 
men,  Lin  and  Chang,  who  are  staying  here?"  The 
boy  replied,  "Mr.  Lin  is  a  hospital  dispenser,  Mr. 
Chang  is  a  preacher."  The  men  were  bound,  and  with 
the  woman  and  little  children  were  carried  to  Prince 
Chuang's  palace.  There  they  endured  a  mock  trial, 
and  Mr.  Lin  made  an  earnest  plea  for  his  wife  because 
of  her  physical  condition,  and  for  the  sake  of  her 
little  children.  His  prayer  was  granted,  his  wife  and 
children  were  taken  into  a  side  court,  and  he  and  Mr. 
Chang  were  led  bound  to  execution.  So  brave  were 
they  that  their  hearts  were  cut  out  to  offer  on  the 
Boxer  altar. 

TWO  ORPHAN  GIRLS 

[The  little  girl  who  told  this  story  was  eight  years 
old ;  her  sister  was  three.  Their  home  was  in  a  village 
not  far  from  Shun  I  Hsien.] 

One  day  last  year,  I  don't  remember  what  day, 
the  Boxers  killed  my  father.  My  grandfather  had  a 
covetous  heart  and  wanted  to  get  our  farm,  so  he 
plotted  to  kill  my  mother,  my  sister,  and  me.  He  said 
to  my  mother  very  sternly,  "The  Boxers  are  coming; 


28o      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

they  are  coming  to  kill  you.  Why  don't  you  three 
die  at  once?  I  will  buy  you  eight  hundred  cash  worth 
of  mercury.    You  had  better  drink  it  quickly." 

Then  my  grandfather  hired  a  man  in  the  village 
named  Han  Pa  to  kill  us.  He  gave  him  a  little  money 
and  a  bushel  of  corn,  and  Han  Pa  led  us  out  of  the 
village  to  the  river  bank,  less  than  a  mile  away.  Our 
dog  followed  us.  When  we  reached  the  river,  Han 
Pa  said  to  my  mother,  "This  is  your  place ;  shall  I 
push  you  into  the  river,  or  will  you  jump  in  your- 
selves?" My  mother  saw  that  there  was  no  help  for 
it,  so  she  swallowed  the  mercury,  and  while  she  was 
still  alive,  Han  Pa  pushed  her  into  the  river.  We  two 
children  saw  our  mother  struggling  in  the  water,  and 
cried  out,  ''Mamma!  mamma!"  over  and  over,  wild 
with  grief,  jumping  up  and  down  on  the  river  bank. 
But  we  had  no  way  of  getting  our  mother  out  of  the 
water.  That  wicked  Han  Pa  wanted  to  push  us  into 
the  river,  too,  so  fear  was  added  to  grief. 

I  took  my  sister  on  my  shoulder  and  ran  quickly 
toward  home.  Han  Pa  pursued  us.  The  dog  saw  him 
and  ran  after  him.  Han  Pa,  of  course,  ran  faster 
than  I  did,  but  our  dog  ran  faster  than  he,  and  took 
a  great  bite  out  of  his  leg.  His  leg  was  so  badly  hurt 
that  he  could  n't  run  after  us,  and  was  not  even  able 
to  walk  home. 

It  was  already  dark,  and  we  lost  our  way,  and 
could  n't  find  our  village  home,  so  we  staid  all  night 
in  a  sunken  road.  Our  dog  staid  close  beside  us  as  we 
slept.  The  next  day  we  went  into  the  village  to  my 
aunt's,  but  her  mother-in-law  would  n't  let  us  stay 
there.  So  I  led  my  sister  to  the  home  of  my  grand- 
father's sister  at  a  village  called  Yao  Shang.  Her  hus- 
band did  n't  want  us  to  live  there,  but  some  people 
pleaded  for  us,  and  then  he  let  us  stay.     Afterwards 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      281 

Han  Pa  struck  our  dear  dog  dead,  then  boiled  his  flesh 
and  ate  it.  Three  or  four  days  later  Han  Pa  vomited 
blood  and  died. 

My  little  sister  and  I  lived  at  Yao  Shang  until 
December.  Then  Miss  Russell  sent  men  to  bring  us  to 
the  mission  in  Peking,  and  we  are  now  living  in  the 
Orphanage. 

LI  cii'ang  ch'un 

[Only  extracts  have  been  taken  from  Li  Ch'ang 
Ch'un's  full  account  of  his  strange,  sad  experiences. 
He  was  living  in  Peking  when  the  persecutions  began, 
and  took  the  church  register  and  the  communion  set 
belonging  to  the  North  Chapel  of  the  American  Board 
to  his  own  home  for  safer  keeping.  Then  dangers  in- 
creased, and  he  took  refuge  with  his  family  in  his 
former  village  home  in  the  Shun  I  Hsien  region, 
about  twenty  miles  from  Peking.  We  begin  his  narra- 
tive with  the  mention  of  a  conversation  with  another 
Christian  man  living  in  the  village.] 

I  sought  out  Mr.  Fu,  and  we  consulted  as  to  how 
to  escape  from  the  Boxers.  Mrs.  Fu  said :  ''Where 
can  a  young  woman  go  for  refuge  ?  Certainly  there  is 
no  hope  of  life.  It  is  better  to  die  at  home  than  to 
suffer  great,  unknown  hardship  elsewhere.  I  shall  not 
flee."  My  mother,  wife,  and  children  came  to  the 
same  decision.  June  14th,  long  before  light,  I  started 
for  Peking,  anxious  to  know  how  Christians  in  the 
city  were  faring.  When  I  was  still  four  miles  away 
I  saw  smoke  rising  above  the  city  wall.  I  hastened  to 
the  site  of  our  North  and  South  chapels,  only  to  find 
smoking  ruins.  Everywhere  were  Boxers,  hunting 
down  the  Christians.  I  saw  them  cut  down  a  Catholic 
family  named  Chang,  not  leaving  one  alive.     God's 


282      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

strength  was  given  me,  and  I  walked  through  the 
streets  without  fear.  That  evening,  after  I  had  re- 
turned to  my  village  home,  several  friends  came  and 
implored  me  most  earnestly  to  make  my  peace  with  the 
Boxers.  I  said,  ''Though  I  die,  I  shall  not  follow  the 
Boxers."  They  continued  their  persuasions,  and,  as 
my  mouth  was  no  match  for  the  many,  I  rose  and  went 
outside  the  door,  watching  for  a  chance  to  slip  away 
and  pray  in  some  quiet  place.  I  thought,  "My  heart 
can  not  bear  this  sorrow.  I  will  leave  them  all,  and 
go  away  alone  for  a  time."  So  I  went  to  the  home 
of  a  relative  about  three  miles  away.  There  I  staid  for 
three  days,  getting  messages  from  my  wife  that  they 
were  still  living  in  peace. 

June  1 8th  I  saw  my  family  again,  and  we  wept  to- 
gether. Again  we  talked  of  flight,  but  my  mother  was 
unwilling  to  leave  the  old  home.  Many  neighbors  and 
friends  gathered  about,  loath  to  have  us  go. 

June  19th,  a  neighbor,  Feng  Ch'i,  came  to  my  nome 
in  the  evening,  and  begged  me  to  take  refuge  some- 
where. My  family  added  their  entreaties,  saying, 
"When  the  Boxers  see  that  you  are  not  at  home  they 
will  make  no  trouble,  and  we  too  can  end  our  days  in 
peace."  Feng  Ch'i  insisted  on  carrying  my  baggage  to 
his  home,  and  there  I  spent  a  sleepless  night.  The 
next  morning,  when  I  was  still  at  this  neighbor's,  I 
heard  a  great  shout,  "Kill !  kill !"  and  rushed  out.  I 
heard  some  one  say,  "Your  house  is  burning."  Then 
another,  "Your  family  are  all  killed."  Another  weep- 
ing said,  "Alas  for  your  family !"  I  knew  something- 
terrible  had  happened,  and  started  out  to  walk  the  path 
of  death  with  my  family,  but  Feng  Ch'i  held  me  back, 
saying,  "If  you  go  out  from  my  door,  I  fear  it  will  in- 
volve my  whole  family;  we  shall  all  perish  with  you." 
While  we  were  talking  a  man  came,  saying,  "Mr.  Fu's 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      283 

mother,  who  was  not  a  Church  member,  came  out  of 
their  house  with  a  burning  incense  stick  in  her  hands. 
The  Boxers  rushed  forward  with  their  swords  and 
immediately  severed  her  head  from  her  body.  Mr.  Fu 
and  his  wife  fled." 

Most  of  the  Boxers  left  the  work  of  carnage  at  this 
point,  and  went  to  their  homes  to  eat,  so  the  cries  of 
"Kill!"  grew  fainter.  But  soon  the  message  came, 
"The  Boxers  are  beginning  to  search  from  house  to 
house  for  Christians."  Feng  Ch'i's  brother  cried  out, 
"If  you  keep  Li  Chang  Ch'un  here,  disaster  will  come 
to  your  whole  family ;  even  your  house  will  be  burned." 
Then  came  one  saying,  "Mrs.  Fu  was  chased  by  Boxers 
outside  the  village,  many  watching  her  flight.  I  saw 
her  lie  down  in  a  depression  in  the  ground,  saying, 
*I  want  nothing  else ;  I  wait  for  the  Boxers  to  give  my 
life  to  them.'  Soon  Boxers  came  and  hacked  her  to 
death,  burying  her  in  the  hole  where  she  lay." 

Another  rushed  in,  saying,  "They  are  coming  to 
search  this  house."  All  turned  pale  with  fear,  and 
Feng  Ch'i  said  to  me:  "I  can  not  save  you.  I  have  in- 
vited your  death  by  keeping  you  here,  and  fear  I  have 
involved  my  whole  family."  Stricken  with  grief  for 
my  good  neighbor,  I  said,  "I  '11  go  at  once."  Setting 
up  a  ladder  he  helped  me  climb  a  wall,  and  peering  over 
I  saw  a  crowd  surrounding  the  pit  where  Mrs.  Fu  was 
lying.  Soon  I  heard  a  voice  saying,  "He  is  not  in 
this  house."  Turning  I  saw  that  it  was  Feng 
Ch'i's  nephew,  speaking  from  the  house  roof,  and 
knew  that  danger  was  close  at  hand.  I  crept  to  the  top 
of  the  wall,  not  daring  to  stand  upright,  and  looking 
north  I  saw  a  band  of  Boxers  and  heard  them  say, 
"Go  to  the  altar  and  burn  incense."  I  jumped  over 
this  wall,  but  was  stopped  by  a  higher  one.  I  prayed, 
then  putting  forth  my  utmost  efforts,  I  climbed  over  it. 


284      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Several  children  saw  me  as  I  ran  to  a  shed  on  a  thresh- 
ing-floor, and  a  dog  barked  viciously.  Soon  I  hear«l 
my  uncle's  voice  calling  my  name,  and  answered,  "I 
am  here.'.'  "Can  you  escape?"  he  asked.  I  replied, 
''Depending  upon  myself,  I  can  not."  While  we  were 
speaking,  three  or  four  neighbors  came  in,  crying, 
"Go!  go  quickly  while  no  one  is  here."  I  thought, 
"God  will  save  me ;  I  must  not  run."  So  I  walked  out 
onto  the  street,  where  I  met  the  father  of  a  Boxer 
who  asked  me,  "Whither  are  you  fleeing?"  "To  Pe- 
king or  Tientsin,"  I  said.  Just  then  I  came  to  the  pit 
where  the  six  members  of  my  family  were  being  buried. 
I  thought,  "Why  go  further?"  and  spoke  to  a  man  who 
was  putting  earth  on  the  bodies.  He  did  not  answer, 
but  turned  his  face  and  went  away.  Behind  me  walked 
my  uncle,  and  he  spoke  to  another  gravemaker,  but 
I  did  not  hear  his  words.  I  walked  on  slowly,  not 
liking  to  show  ingratitude  to  those  who  were  trying 
to  save  my  life.  About  a  mile  beyond  I  met  a  neighbor 
who  said,  "In  brighter  days  may  we  meet  again." 
Crossing  a  river,  I  went  to  the  home  of  a  relative,  and, 
weeping  bitterly,  said :  "I  have  seen  six  members  of 
my  family  buried  in  one  pit.  I  can  not  stop  to  tell 
more,  for  I  fear  that  the  Boxers  will  come,  and  you 
will  be  involved." 

I  hastened  to  send  a  messenger  back  to  Feng  Ch'i's 
to  get  a  little  necessary  baggage  and  some  money,  and 
then  waited  outside  the  village.  About  seven  in  the 
evening  he  returned,  and  my  nephew  and  another  rela- 
tive walked  with  me  several  miles  on  my  journey.  I 
kept  considering  in  my  heart,  and  then  said  to  them  in 
a  low  voice  that  I  might  go  to  Kalgan.  We  wept  as 
we  parted  in  the  darkness  and  I  went  on  alone  for 
miles.  Hungry  and  thirsty,  I  sat  by  the  roadside  to 
rest  a  little,  and  prayed  God  to  help  me  make  my  plans. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      285 

It  was  light  when  I  readied  the  An  Ting  Gate  of 
Peking,  and,  meeting  a  peddler,  I  bought  two  cucum- 
bers and  thanked  God  for  the  refreshment.  Within  the 
city  the  sound  of  rifles  and  cannon  was  incessanl. 
The  next  day  I  started  toward  Kalgan,  and  saw  Boxers 
in  great  tumult,  killing  Christians  and  burning  houses. 
At  first  I  felt  very  fearful ;  then,  putting  my  trust  in  the 
Lord,  I  thought,  ''How  can  they  recognize  me  as  a 
Christian  ?  They  say  that  we  have  a  cross  on  our 
foreheads  by  which  they  know  us,  but  that  is  all  sham." 

All  along  the  way  I  met  numberless  Boxers,  and  so 
sad  was  my  heart  that  I  could  not  keep  back  the  tears. 
By  hiring  donkeys,  I  reached  an  inn  at  Nan  K'ou 
before  sunset.  Boxers  carrying  telegraph  poles  called 
out  to  the  landlord,  "You  must  not  lodge  Christians 
here." 

The  landlord  asked  me,  "Where  did  you  come  from, 
and  where  are  you  going?" 

"I  am  going  to  Hsuan  Hua  Fu." 

"Why  ?" 

"To  see  a  relative  who  has  just  gone  there." 

Just  then  a  donkey-driver  came  up  to  ask  me  to 
hire  his  donkey  for  the  next  day,  and  the  interrupted 
conversation  was  not  resumed.  Thanking  the  Lord  for 
this  opportunity  to  rest,  I  slept  that  night  without  dis- 
turbance. 

The  next  day  I  walked  on  alone,  and  saw  Boxers 
tearing  down  the  telegraph  poles.  A  man  lay  dying  by 
the  roadside,  with  the  palms  of  his  hands  and  the 
hollows  of  his  feet  dug  out.  Seeing  that  he  was  still 
able  to  speak,  I  asked,  "Are  you  a  Christian  ?"  "No," 
he  said.  I  did  not  dare  talk  with  him  longer,  lest  I 
too  be  taken  for  a  poison-scatterer ;  so  giving  him  a 
handful  of  cash  I  went  on. 

June  22d. — As  I  left  the  place  where  I  spent  the 


286      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

night,  I  was  stopped  by  Boxers  in  the  city  gate  and 
searched.  This  happened  at  every  city  which  I  entered, 
but  my  heart  had  courage.  Later  that  day,  when  I 
was  passing  through  a  sand  desert,  a  great  wind  rose, 
and  I  could  not  find  the  road.  I  sat  down  and  prayed, 
and  soon  the  wind  grew  Hghter,  and  I  saw  a  village  in 
the  distance.  So,  thought  I,  will  it  be  with  this  perse- 
cution of  the  Church.  The  storm  will  soon  pass,  and 
peace  will  come.  That  night  at  an  inn  only  a  thin 
partition  separated  me  from  a  room  occupied  by  Boxers, 
and  as  their  repulsive  talk  fell  on  my  ears,  I  prayed. 
Then  I  thought  of  the  Bible  promises,  *'The  sun  shall 
not  smite  thee  by  day,  nor  the  moon  by  night;"  "The 
Lord  is  a  strong  tower ;"  and  my  heart  was  strengthened 
and  comforted. 

[We  omit  the  record  of  the  next  two  or  three 
weeks, — his  vain  search  for  his  relative  in  Hsuan  Hua 
Fu;  his  wanderings  about  distant  Kalgan  in  search  of 
Christians ;  his  crossing  of  a  high  mountain  ridge  into 
Mongolia,  where  Catholics  were  strongly  intrenched 
at  Hsi  Wan  Tzu.  He  could  hear  of  no  Protestants 
among  them,  and  turned  back  to  wander  among  the 
mountains.] 

July  nth. — As  I  was  walking  through  a  mountain 
ravine  I  heard  a  man  call  out,  ''The  water  is  coming." 
Looking  up  I  saw  a  wall  of  water,  a  raging  mountain 
torrent,  almost  upon  me.  My  heart  was  in  my  mouth 
and  my  legs  were  trembling  with  weakness  as  I 
scrambled  up  the  steep  side  of  the  ravine,  almost  falling 
back  into  the  boiling  cauldron  below,  and  caught  a 
tree-root.  The  sound  of  the  water  was  like  thunder. 
I  could  not  climb,  for  I  was  stiff  with  cold,  and  had 
on  only  thin  clothing.    As  I  sat  down  to  rest  and  pray. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      287 

I  thought  of  the  Ilill  Difficulty ;  then,  putting  forth  my 
utmost  strength,  I  clambered  on.  Looking  back,  I 
could  see  the  mad  torrent,  half  choken  with  debris, 
whirling  on  the  bodies  of  men  and  horses.  The  Lord 
saved  me  from  the  Boxers,  1  thought,  and  also  from 
this  flood.  Surely  he  has  some  special  thought  in  thus 
preserving  me.  And  I  should  have  some  high  purpose 
in  life. 

July  1 2th. — After  climbing  ten  miles  on  lonely 
mountain  paths  and  crossing  four  ridges,  I  saw  a  still 
higher  one  before  me.  Weak  from  hunger  and  thirst, 
with  blistered  feet,  I  lay  down  exhausted,  and  wept. 
"My  burden  is  too  heavy,"  I  groaned.  "It  would  be 
better  to  find  a  precipice  and  end  my  life."  I  walked 
on  a  few  steps,  then  lay  down  until  strength  came  to 
crawl  a  few  steps  more.  So  I  kept  on,  often  calling 
out,  "Lord !  Lord !"  in  my  despair,  until  I  reached  the 
top  of  the  ridge.  There  I  heard  the  voice  of  song, 
and  saw  three  men.  They  grudgingly  gave  me  a  few 
drops  of  water  left  in  a  bottle,  and  directed  me  on  my 
way.  Soon  I  was  in  a  village  drinking  dipperful  after 
dipperful  of  water,  and  strength  returned  to  my  weary 
body.  Falling  in  with  other  travelers,  I  succeeded  in 
getting  into  an  inn  that  night. 

July  13th. — I  w^ent  on  to  Hsin  Hua  Ch'eng,  where 
I  tried  to  get  lodging  in  an  inn,  but  the  landlord  would 
not  even  talk  with  me.  "Travelers  are  all  either  Catho- 
lics or  poison-scatterers,"  he  said.  After  traveling 
about  twenty  miles  over  the  Mongolian  plains,  I  lay 
exhausted  by  the  roadside,  almost  dead  from  thirst. 
No  one  was  in  sight,  but  after  a  while  a  herd  of  cattle 
appeared,  and  following  them  I  came  to  a  pond  where 
I  quenched  my  thirst.  I  found  there  many  people  in 
tents  who  were  kind  to  me.  That  night  no  inn  would 
lodge  me,  so  I  slept  in  front  of  a  temple. 


288      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

July  14th. — I  got  up  before  light,  and  went  in 
search  of  food  and  drink.  I  found  a  well,  and  sat  near 
it  a  long  time,  but  had  no  utensil  for  getting  water. 
Then  a  man  came  and  drew  me  some  water,  but  I 
drank  it  at  some  distance  from  the  well,  lest  they 
suspect  me  of  being  a  well-poisoner.  That  night  I 
slept  in  a  hole  in  the  mountain-side. 

July  15th. — As  I  walked  along  I  saw  many  refugees. 
I  saw  many  foreign  cans  of  meat,  fruit,  and  vegetables, 
which  had  been  looted  from  foreign  houses ;  but  no  one 
dared  to  eat  the  food,  fearing  poison.  I  opened  a  can 
and  ate,  thanking  God  for  it.  A  bystander  said: 
"Do  n't  touch  those  things.  Are  n't  you  afraid  of  being 
poisoned?"  As  I  was  about  to  go  forward  the  man 
said,  "Just  ahead  there  is  a  place  where  they  are  kill- 
ing every  one  who  passes."  So  I  rested  a  while  longer ; 
then  I  heard  a  bugle  blast,  and,  not  knowing  what  it 
might  mean,  I  ran  and  hid  in  a  ravine.  Then  I  crept 
out  and  crossed  a  mountain  ridge.  When  I  was  so 
weary  that  I  could  go  no  farther,  I  asked  for  shelter  at 
an  inn ;  but  the  landlord  reviled  me  soundly,  then  fired 
off  his  gun  several  times. 

July  1 6th. — I  hired  a  cart  to  take  me  back  to  Hsuan 
Hua  Fu.  The  owner  of  the  cart  was  a  Boxer,  the  carter 
was  a  Boxer,  there  was  another  passenger  who  was  also 
a  Boxer.  The  deeds  of  the  Boxers  formed  the  only 
topic  of  conversation.  One  said :  "They  have  killed 
over  a  hundred  Christians  at  Hsuan  Hua  Fu,  and 
burned  hundreds  of  houses.  There  were  three  large 
carts  containing  Catholic  nuns,  who  were  all  killed, 
the  carts  were  burned,  the  mules  were  cut  into  pieces 
and  burned  too." 

When  we  reached  the  north  gate  of  Hsuan  Hua  Fu, 
the  men  on  guard  called  out,  "Get  out  of  your  carts." 
They  also  made  us  take  off  the  handkerchiefs  with 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      289 

whicli  our  heads  were  bound  that  they  might  sec 
whetlicr  we  had  crosses  on  our  foreheads.  We  were 
allowed  to  enter,  and  p^oing-  northward  through  the 
streets  I  saw  dead  bodies  and  ashes.  Where  the  Catho- 
lic nuns  had  been  killed,  only  the  hoofs  of  the  mules 
were  left.  Heartsick  though  I  was,  I  knew  that  my 
life  depended  upon  concealing  all  signs  of  grief. 

[Record  of  two  days  is  omitted.] 

July  19th. — My  relative  urged  me  to  leave  Hsuan 
Hua  Fu  at  once,  and  followed  behind  me  at  some  dis- 
tance as  I  walked  through  the  city  gate  where  Boxers 
were  drawn  up  on  either  side,  looking  very  fierce  with 
their  drawn  swords.  I  walked  boldly  through,  then 
my  relative  joined  me.  It  was  very  hot,  and  two  or 
three  miles  outside  the  city  we  sat  down  by  a  watch- 
tower  to  rest  and  talk,  especially  about  affairs  at  Tien- 
tsin, for  it  was  rumored  that  foreign  soldiers  were 
there  in  force.  While  we  were  sitting  there,  a  band 
of  forty  or  fifty  Boxers  rushed  up,  pointing  their  swords 
and  spears  toward  us.  My  relative  was  frightened 
ashen  pale,  but  putting  on  a  bold  face  I  said,  "What  are 
you  doing?"  and  the  Boxers  did  not  molest  us.  As 
I  parted  from  my  relative  I  said,  "God  will  protect  me ; 
do  not  grieve."  I  felt  a  great  desire  to  go  to  Peking, 
for  many  weeks  had  passed  since  I  had  heard  of  the 
fate  of  the  Christians  there.  Finding  a  quiet  place 
behind  a  wayside  tablet,  I  knelt  and  prayed  for  guid- 
ance. Tears  ran  down  my  face  as  I  reviewed  the  past 
and  tried  to  look  into  the  dark  future. 

July  20th. —  [Omitted.] 

July  2 1  St. — Starting  out  from  Huai  Lai,  I  inquired 
about  affairs  in  Peking.  "They  are  still  fighting 
there,"  was  the  answer.  Thanking  God  for  this  proof 
that  some  were  still  holding  out  against  the  Boxers,  I 
went  on  my  way.     That  night  at  the  inn  a  guest  said, 

19 


290      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"A  man  who  has  come  from  Tientsin  says  it  has  been 
captured  by  the  foreigners." 

July  22d. — I  had  only  thirteen  cash  left  when  I 
reached  the  An  Ting  Gate  of  Peking  in  the  evening. 
There  I  hesitated  whether  to  go  in  or  not,  for  there 
were  many  in  the  city  who  knew  me.  I  found  that 
the  Methodist  mission  had  been  burned,  and  my  heart 
was  overwhelmed  with  sadness.  Then  all  of  the  Pro- 
testants are  killed,  I  thought.  Not  even  a  seed  is  left. 
I  was  told,  too,  that  only  a  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
were  left  in  the  legations,  and  that  they  had  no  food. 
In  deep  despair  I  longed  for  death.  In  the  evening 
I  started  toward  the  country.  Dogs  barked  at  every 
village ;  then  men  would  come  out.  Several  times  they 
almost  caught  me.  Hungry  and  weak,  I  was  tempted 
to  give  up  the  long  struggle  for  life.  Then  I  was 
chased  into  a  mud  pit.  No  words  can  tell  the  misery 
of  that  night.  When  my  pursuers  left,  I  crawled  onto 
the  sand  to  rest. 

[Later  records  tell  of  his  going  to  relatives  east  of 
Peking  who  refused  to  let  him  in,  but  handed  him  food 
and  water  through  the  window.  Still  God's  hand  led 
and  protected  until  the  allies  reached  Peking,  and  the 
lonely  fugitive  found  Christian  friends  and  rest.] 

A  SHUN  I  HSIKN  MARTYR 

Few  details  have  been  preserved  of  the  martyrdoms 
at  this  large  out-station  of  the  American  Board,  where 
only  twelve  of  the  sixty-five  Christians  escaped  death. 
One  picture  is  given  us.  It  is  of  a  woman,  Mrs.  Li, 
who  had  been  a  Christian  less  than  a  year.  We  see 
her  walking  through  the  streets  of  the  city  nearly  a 
mile  to  a  Boxer  altar,  her  hands  tied  behind  her,  rough 
men  on  every  side.  Over  and  over  again  she  sings  the 
one  hymn  she  knows,  *'Jesus  loves  me,  this  I  know." 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      291 

Confident  in  the  great  love  which  did  not  fail  her,  she 
went  down  into  the  dark  valley. 

A  NAN   MENG  MARTYR 

On  this  large  field  far  south  of  Peking  the  blow 
fell  before  danger  threatened  the  capital.  Mr.  Tung, 
a  member  of  the  Church  at  Nan  Meng,  who  was  teach- 
ing in  Peking,  went  to  bid  a  missionary  farewell  before? 
returning  to  his  home.  When  she  urged  him  to  remain 
in  Peking  he  said,  ''No,  I  must  go  home;  I  am  not 
afraid  to  die  for  my  Lord."  He  had  been  in  his  home 
only  about  half  an  hour  when  the  Boxers  arrested  him. 
He  talked  to  them  so  earnestly  about  the  religion 
which  he  believed  that,  in  a  rage,  they  cut  his  body  into 
many  pieces,  sending  one  to  each  Boxer  altar  in  the 
neighborhood. 

PASTOR  HUNG 

A  sad  uncertainty  hangs  over  the  fate  of  Pastor 
Hung,  who  for  many  years  had  faithfully  shepherded 
the  flock  in  this  Nan  Meng  region.  Pie  was  in  Peking 
that  night,  June  13th,  when  the  terrible  slaughter  oc- 
curred. Unable  to  find  his  loved  ones,  wild  with 
grief,  he  was  seen  in  one  of  the  city  gates  the  next 
morning.  Perhaps  he  was  killed  later ;  perhaps  the 
following  story  is  true.  Nearly  a  year  after  the  mas- 
sacre began,  a  man  came  from  Central  Asia  and  re- 
ported that  he  had  met  there  a  man  named  Hung,  a 
Christian,  who  when  asked  why  he  did  not  return  to  his 
home  in  China  replied,  "My  friends  have  all  been 
killed ;  the  Christians  and  missionaries  are  extermi- 
nated.    Why  should  I  go  back  ?" 

All  efforts  to  reach  this  heartbroken  wanderer  in 
those  dreary  wastes  have  failed.  If  he  ever  returns  to 
Peking  he  will  find  there  his  wife  and  children,  who 


292      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

for  two  long  years  have  hoped  against  hope  that  their 
loved  one  might  be  restored  to  them. 

love:  i^or  the  bibi,e 

A  member  of  a  Congregational  Church  in  Peking 
was  away  in  Manchuria  when  the  trouble  broke  out; 
but  his  wife  and  two  sons,  aged  sixteen  and  eleven, 
were  in  Peking.  The  oldest  boy  was  a  student  in  the 
Methodist  school.  When  they  fled  from  their  home, 
this  boy  hid  a  little  New  Testament  in  his  clothing. 
His  mother  urged  him  to  throw  it  away,  as  its  dis- 
covery would  mean  certain  death  to  them  all.  But 
the  boy  said :  ''No,  mother,  we  must  not  do  that. 
If  I  die,  I  want  that  book  on  my  body.  Our  hope  is  in 
God,  and  how  can  we  ask  him  to  save  us  if  we  throw 
away  his  Book?"  The  mother,  thinking  that  her  boys 
would  have  a  better  chance  to  escape  if  she  were 
not  with  them,  proposed  to  drown  herself,  but  the 
oldest  boy  said,  "Mother,  God  has  not  asked  for  your 
life  yet,  and  you  will  do  wrong  to  go  to  him  before  he 
calls  you."  The  boy's  brave  faith  was  rewarded  by  the 
preservation  of  the  entire  family. 

THREE  METHODIST  MARTYRS 

[Mr.  Hobart  writes  of  two  brave  souls  who  suffered 
death  in  the  Lan  Chou  District :] 

Chapel-Keeper  Liu  was  taken  by  them  and  bound 
to  a  pillar  at  the  temple  of  Yii  Huang.  He  kept 
preaching  to  them  after  he  was  bound  there,  when 
a  brute  said  to  him,  "You  still  preach,  do  you?"  and 
then  slit  his  mouth  from  ear  to  ear. 

One  schoolboy,  Wang  Chih  Shen,  was  taken  and 
given  the  opportunity  to  save  his  life  by  worshiping 
some  tablets.     The  village  elders  even  begged  him  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      293 

do  it;  then  they  could  secure*  his  release.  But  he 
said,  "I  can't  do  it.  To  say  nothing  of  disobeying  God, 
I  could  never  look  my  teacher  and  my  schoolmates 
in  the  face  if  I  did  it." 

Dr.  Lowry,  in  a  report  of  the  Peking  District, 
writes :  "Brother  Chang  An,  one  of  our  stewards, 
was  taken  by  the  Boxers,  who  demanded  that  he  recant 
and  worship  the  idols.  He  replied,  *I  will  not;  you  can 
do  as  you  please  with  me,  but  I  will  not  deny  the 
Lord.'    He  died  the  death  of  a  martyr." 

"Careless  seems  the  great  Avenger;  History's  pages  but  record 
One  death-grapple  in  the  darkness  'twixt  old  systems  and  the 

Word ; 
Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne, — 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and  behind  the  dim  un- 
known 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  his 
own," 


CHAPTER  VIII 
MARTYR  DAYS  IN  T'UNGCHOU 

"  In  all  their  affliction  he  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  his 
presence  saved  them ;  in  his  love  and  in  his  pity  he  redeemed 
them;  and  he  bare  them,  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old." 

In  no  city  in  North  China  had  the  people  been 
more  friendly  with  missionaries  than  in  T'ungchoii, 
fourteen  miles  from  Peking.  For  a  third  of  a  century 
missionaries  of  the  American  Board  had  Hved  and 
worked  here,  and  not  once  had  a  threatening  mob 
approached  their  gates.  When  the  terrible  massacre 
of  Tientsin  took  place  in  1870,  the  missionaries  in 
T'ungchou,  though  entirely  unprotected,  were  not 
attacked.  In  1895,  when  it  was  daily  rumored  that  a 
great  Japanese  army  was  about  to  attack  Peking  by  way 
of  T'ungchou,  and  the  wildest  excitement  prevailed, 
the  missionaries  continued  their  work  in  perfect  peace. 
But  T'ungchou  was  ruined  commercially  by  the  rail- 
road which  was  built  from  Tientsin  to  Peking  in  1897. 
Hunger  and  cold  stirred  up  a  strong  anti-foreign  feel- 
ing, and  it  was  T'ungchou  Boxers  who,  on  May  28th, 
began  the  destruction  of  railways.  Still  for  ten  days 
the  missionaries  and  Christians  lived  unmolested  in 
the  city.  But  when  the  storm  had  gathered  fury,  it 
swept  all  before  it,  and  nowhere  were  its  ravages  more 
terrible  than  in  T'ungchou. 

the:  story  01?  1,1  WEN  YU 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  March,  1900,  when  I 
took  my  bride  to  my  home  in  the  town  of  Niu  Mu 

294 


V. 


a  - 


I    > 
ft 

:   r. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      295 

T'un,  ten  miles  south  of  T'ungchou.  There  for  two 
or  three  years  I  had  charge  of  a  Httle  "Jesus  Church," 
which  had  slowly  grown  from  a  handful  of  believers 
until  about  twenty  Church  members  and  a  number 
of  inquirers  met  with  us  every  Sunday  in  our  small 
chapel.  Before  I  was  married  I  had  lived  with  my 
father  in  a  tiny  house  in  the  chapel  yard ;  but  as  we 
would  be  too  crowded  there,  I  rented  rooms  for  my 
wife  and  myself  in  the  compound  of  a  well-to-do 
Church  member,  Mr.  Ch'en,  only  a  few  rods  from  tho 
chapel,  where  my  father  continued  to  live.  My  wife 
had  stutlied  in  the  Bridgman  School,  and  we  were  very 
happy  as  we  planned  together  for  building  up  our 
Church.  All  the  women  rejoiced  in  the  coming  of 
one  so  loving-hearted  and  able  to  help  them. 

Our  lives  did  not  long  remain  unclouded.  Early 
in  May  Boxer  teachers  came  from  T'ungchou,  and 
soon  we  heard  that  a  band  had  been  organized  in  our 
town,  though  they  were  only  practicing  in  secret. 
Then  a  Taoist  priest  threw  open  his  temple  for  their 
use,  and  soon  a  Boxer  flag  waved  proudly  over  it. 

Late  in  May,  three  evangelists  came  out  from 
T'ungchou  to  help  and  encourage  me ;  then  went  to 
Yung  Le  Tien,  six  miles  away,  where  another  evan- 
gelist, Li  Te  Kuei,  had  worked  for  about  ten  years. 
Mr.  Li  and  I  met  several  times  during  that  month 
when  the  ominous  clouds  were  gathering.  He  would 
not  desert  his  Church,  and  I,  though  fearful  like  him, 
saw  only  the  one  path  before  me,  to  stay  at  my  post 
and  trust,  for  life  or  death.  Once,  after  a  solemn  talk 
together,  he  said,  "We  must  prepare  to  meet  our  God." 

On  June  5th,  when  I  was  selling  books  on  the 
street  as  usual,  I  heard  that  Boxers  had  come  from 
several  other  villages  for  a  grand  display  of  their 
supernatural  powers.    They  would  expose  their  spirit- 


296      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

possessed  bodies  to  a  shower  of  shot,  and  at  one  pass 
of  the  hand  over  their  breasts  the  shot  would  drop 
harmless  to  the  ground.  In  vain  I  pointed  out  the 
tricks  by  which  they  were  deceiving  the  people ;  the 
whole  community  was  mad  with  enthusiasm  for  these 
"divine  soldiers." 

This  same  day  I  heard  a  report  that  a  Catholic 
chapel  five  miles  away  had  been  burned  the  night 
before,  and  sent  a  friend  to  ascertain  if  it  was  true. 
He  came  back  in  despair  reporting,  "The  ruins  are 
still  smoking;  the  Christians  were  all  killed."  "Then 
our  time  has  come,"  I  said. 

The  next  day,  Wednesday,  I  went  to  T'ungchou 
to  tell  of  this  new  disaster.  On  the  way  I  passed  a 
village  where  several  hundred  Boxers  were  gathered, 
and  almost  ran  to  carry  my  message,  and  get  back  to 
my  wife  and  my  old  father.  Thankfulness  filled  my 
heart  as  I  saw  my  home  again  about  ten  o'clock  in  the 
evening.  But  my  wife  told  me  that,  after  I  had  gone, 
she  had  heard  that  two  families  of  Christians,  warned 
by  relatives  who  were  Boxers  that  an  attack  was  to 
be  made  on  our  town  that  very  night,  had  fled  to  other 
villages.  Soon  a  young  man  came  in,  greatly  excited, 
saying  that  he  heard  ominous  sounds  as  if  the  Boxers 
were  gathering.  I  sent  him  out  again  to  watch;  but 
hardly  had  he  gone  when  hundreds  of  Boxers  and 
soldiers  surrounded  our  yard,  the  chapel  where  my 
father  lived,  and  other  places  where  there  were  Chris- 
tians. It  was  the  company  which  I  had  passed  that 
very  morning,  and  they  had  separated  for  simultaneous 
attacks,  that  not  one  might  escape. 

There  were  seven  of  us  together  when  the  attack 
was  made, — Mr.  Ch'en  and  his  invalid  wife,  his 
nephew,  Mr.  Lin,  with  his  wife  and  nine-year-old 
daughter,  my  wife  and  I.  "Kill !  kill  the  erh  mao-tzu !" 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      297 

cried  the  mob  at  our  gate,  and  with  a  storm  of  cUib 
blows  the  high,  strong  gate  creaked  to  its  fall.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Ch'en  remained  in  their  rooms,  Mr.  Lin 
rushed  out  as  the  gate  fell,  a  blow  from  a  club  laid 
him  prostrate,  and  tens  of  spears  stabbed  him  to  death 
as  he  lay  helpless.  His  wife  and  daughter,  my  wife 
and  I,  ran  before  the  Boxers  broke  in  to  a  tiny,  roof- 
less outhouse  in  a  corner  of  the  yard.  There,  as  we 
crouched  down  together,  we  heard  the  mob  rush  in 
and  break  down  the  door  leading  to  my  rooms,  and 
heard  Mr.  Ch'en  call  out  from  his  room,  "Neighbors, 
have  you  no  regard  for  the  laws  of  the  land?"  His 
protests  were  unheeded  as  the  mad  rabble  carried  out 
such  of  our  possessions  as  they  fancied,  and  smashed 
the  rest  in  a  mama  of  destruction.  Then  Mr.  Ch'en's 
door  fell  before  their  blows,  and  he  ran  out,  I  know 
not  whither.  His  frail  old  wife  still  sat  in  the  room. 
"Drag  her  out,"  called  a  shrill  voice.  "No,  burn  her 
up  in  the  house,"  cried  a  chorus  of  voices.  "Do  you, 
Mrs.  Ch'en,  call  yourself  a  citizen  of  the  great  Chinese 
Empire?"  "Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Ch'en.  "Then  why  do 
you  follow  the  foreign  devils?"  Her  answer  was  lost 
in  the  tumult. 

In  our  little  corner  we  were  kneeling  in  prayer. 
"Keep  them  from  finding  us  if  it  be  Thy  will ;  if  not, 
take  us  quickly  to  thyself."  In  a  low  whisper  my 
dear  young  wife  prayed,  "Forgive  these  neighbors, 
these  Boxers ;  they  do  not  understand.  Pity  their 
blindness."  She  was  much  calmer  than  I,  but  she 
said,  "God  grant  that  if  they  come  they  may  kill  me 
first ;  let  me  not  fall  into  their  hands  for  insult  and 
torture." 

Still  we  knelt  there  as  we  heard  the  crackling  flames 
devouring  the  buildings  on  three  sides  of  the  court, 
which  was  now  as  light  as  day.    Suddenly  ]\Ir.  Ch'en 


298      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

made  a  rush  for  our  retreat  from  some  place  where 
he  had  been  hiding,  and  the  mob  yelUng,  ''They  are 
hiding  in  that  corner,"  followed  at  his  heels.  Mrs.  Lin 
and  her  daughter  got  over  the  wall,  but  by  the  time  Mr. 
Ch'en  had  mounted  the  wall  to  follow  them.  Boxer 
spears  were  thrust  in  his  face,  and  he  fell  back  with  me 
and  my  wife.  The  cowardly  Boxers  did  not  come 
into  our  little  inclosure,  but,  perched  on  the  high  brick 
wall  surrounding  it,  they  stabbed  down  at  us  with  their 
cruel  spears.  I  was  kneeling  when  the  first  spear 
thrust  threw  me  backward,  and  my  wife,  with  an 
agonized  cry,  flung  herself  upon  me  to  ward  off  the 
fast-falling  blows.  Mr.  Ch'en  also  fell  across  my  feet. 
There  came  a  stab  on  my  head,  one  on  my  hand, 
several  on  a  leg  that  lay  exposed,  then  a  tremendous 
thrust  transfixed  my  wife's  body  and  pierced  my  ab- 
domen, and  I  lay  unconscious. 

I  knew  not  how  many  minutes  passed.  When  I 
revived  the  Boxers  had  heaped  cornstalks  on  our  pros- 
trate bodies  and  set  fire  to  them.  Hearing  no  sound, 
I  flung  the  burning  cornstalks  aside  and  spoke  to  my 
wife,  whose  body  still  lay  heavily  on  mine.  No  answer 
came,  and  by  the  light  of  the  flames  I  could  see  that 
life  had  left  her  poor  body.  Mr.  Ch'en  was  dead  too. 
Rising  to  my  feet,  I  saw  that  the  chapel  was  a  smoking 
ruin.  My  father's  charred  body  must  be  lying  there. 
My  face  and  hands  were  cruelly  scorched;  blood  was 
flowing  from  not  less  than  twenty  spear  thrusts;  the 
gaping  wound  in  my  abdomen  made  me  faint.  In 
agony  of  body  and  mind  the  temptation  came  to  end 
my  torment  and  die  with  my  loved  ones.  Surely  there 
was  no  hope  of  escape.  Then  better  thoughts  came: 
"No,  I  can  not  thus  sin  against  the  Lord.  Besides 
I  must  get  to  T'ungchou  and  warn  them."  With  this 
one  idea  possessing  me,  I  left  my  murdered  wife^  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  uK  MARTYRS      299 

stumbled  out  into  the  street.  It  was  perhaps  one 
o'clock.  I  could  only  crawl  a  short  distance,  then  sit 
down  to  rest.  Thus  I  managed  to  go  three  or  four 
miles  before  day  broke ;  then  I  crept  into  a  ravine  and 
lay  down.  The  June  sun  beat  mercilessly  down  on 
my  blistered  face  and  hands.  There  was  no  shade, 
no  water.  Dogs  came  snarling  about  me ;  crows  and 
magpies,  hungry  for  carrion,  came  pecking  at  my 
wounds,  and  I  beat  them  away  with  my  feeble  hands. 
I  longed  for  merciful  death  to  come ;  but  the  day  wore 
away,  and  when  darkness  fell  I  started  again  on  my 
slow  journey  to  T'ungchou.  In  the  early  morning 
of  the  8th  of  June  I  saw  the  roofs  of  the  college  build- 
ings outlined  against  the  sky.  They  had  not  been 
burned  yet.  I  had  no  place  to  hide  from  the  daylight, 
so  I  kept  on  slowly  toward  my  goal.  Several  carts 
passed  me  loaded  with  Boxers  returning  from  T'ung- 
chou to  their  village  homes.  I  heard  a  man  call  out 
from  one  of  the  carts,  "That  's  the  preacher  at  Niu  Mu 
T'un.  Our  comrades  there  have  had  their  hands  on 
him."  "He  can't  possibly  live  even  if  he  drags  himself 
to  T'ungchou,"  called  another ;  "do  n't  touch  him." 
So  I  was  left  to  crawl  toward  the  college,  villagers  who 
saw  me  simply  staring  with  startled  eyes  and  murmur- 
ing, "Boxers." 

When  I  knocked  at  the  college  gate,  an  old  servant 
on  the  place,  Li  Lu,  opened  it,  saying,  "Hush,  do  n't 
make  a  noise ;  the  missionaries  and  other  Chinese  fled 
in  the  night,  and  I  am  here  alone."  He  gave  me  water, 
which,  burning  with  thirst  for  two  nights,  I  drank 
eagerly.  Then  he  brought  me  food,  but  I  could  not 
swallow  it.  "You  must  not  delay  here,"  he  said ; 
"the  others  have  gone  to  Peking ;  you  hire  a  cart  or 
donkey,  and  go  too."  Soldiers  came  up  while  I  was 
trying  to  persuade  the  faithful  old  man  to  flee  with 


300      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

me,  and  although  they  pretended  to  pity  me,  and  said 
that  they  were  going  to  report  my  case  to  the  officials, 
I  suspected,  when  I  saw  them  starting  for  a  temple 
about  half  a  mile  away,  that  they  were  setting  the 
Boxers  on  my  track.  Just  then  another  servant,  Sun 
Erh,  came  up,  and  he  gave  me  a  new  shirt,  a  pair  of 
shoes,  and  a  handkerchief  to  throw  over  my  face.  It 
was  now  eight  or  nine  in  the  morning,  and  I  started 
for  the  west  suburb  of  T'ungchou,  about  half  a  mile 
away,  to  try  to  hire  a  cart  or  donkey.  Before  I 
reached  the  suburb  I  saw  Boxers  coming  out  from  the 
temple  to  which  the  soldiers  had  gone,  one  company 
going  toward  the  college,  the  other  toward  the  suburb. 
I  crawled  under  the  bridge  over  the  moat,  and  they 
passed  by  without  seeing  me.  Crossing  the  moat  on 
some  stones  I  hurried  into  the  fertile  gardens,  which 
covered  several  acres,  and  escaped  them. 

Of  my  terrible  journey  of  fourteen  miles  to  Pe- 
king that  day  I  can  not  tell  you  in  detail.  I  would 
never  have  reached  there  alive  had  not  God  sent  Chris- 
tian friends,  who  helped  me,  at  great  risk  to  themselves. 
My  last  ride  of  an  hour  in  a  springless  cart  through 
the  streets  of  Peking  set  my  wounds  to  bleeding  afresh, 
and  the  driver  feared  that  I  would  die  in  his  cart. 
As  we  turned  down  the  street  on  which  our  mission 
was  located,  I  saw  one  of  our  T'ungchou  missionaries 
coming  toward  me  in  a  cart,  and  with  her  a  young 
Chinese  doctor.  Soon  I  was  lying  in  a  cool  room, 
surrounded  by  sympathetic  friends,  and  two  doctors 
dressed  my  wounds  and  blisters.  Slowly  I  climbed 
back  to  life  again,  in  spite  of  two  more  journeys  on 
a  stretcher  to  escape  the  Boxers,  and  two  months  of 
siege  in  the  British  Legation. 

It  is  just  a  year  since  that  terrible  night,  and  I  am 
still  an  exile  with  the  T'ungchou  mission  in  Peking. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      301 

I  know  the  names  of  many  of  the  murderers  of  my 

father  and  wife.    They  are  Hving  in  peace,  and  I ? 

I  will  not  tell  of  all  the  storms  which  have  swept 
over  me  diirini:^  these  weary  months.  None  of  my 
relatives  are  Christians.  According  to  Chinese  custom 
a  son  has  no  right  to  live  after  his  father  or  mother  has 
been  killed,  unless  the  murderer  has  forfeited  his  life. 
My  ears  burn  with  the  taunts  of  my  friends:  "What 
kind  of  a  son  are  you  ?  Have  you  no  filial  affection  ? 
Think  of  the  tortures  heaped  on  your  poor  old  fatlicr ! 
and  here  his  murderers  go  roaming  over  the  country 
unpunished,  and  you  dare  to  hold  up  your  head  and 
live!"  1  turn  from  their  bitter  reproaches  with  a  mad 
thirst  for  vengeance ;  then  the  words  of  the  Bible  fall 
on  my  ears,  or  some  one  tells  me  how  my  Master 
died  on  the  cross  praying  for  his  enemies,  as  did  my 
martyred  wife.  And  the  spirit  of  revenge  and  the 
spirit  of  forgiveness  fight  deadly  battles  in  my  poor 
heart,  until  I  can  only  pray  for  that  blessed  hour  when 
Jesus  will  call  me  home,  and  I  shall  be  tempest-tossed 
no  more.* 

MR.   AND   MRS.   FAY 

The  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fay  was  in  a  village 
eight  miles  from  T  ungchou,  but  for  many  years  they 
had  lived  near  the  mission  compound  in  the  city.  Mrs. 
Fay's  face  was  well  known  in  the  dispensary  where, 
day  after  day,  she  sat  and  talked  to  the  women  who 
came  for  medicine,  and  in  the  west  suburb,  where  manv 
a  Sunday  she  sat  in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  women 
and  children  telling  the  story  of  Jesus. 

<'To  make  the  account  of  T'ungchou  complete  there  should  be  re- 
corded here  the  story  of  U  Te  Kuei.  given  in  Chapter  V.  Connected 
with  these  two  out  stations  of  Niu  Mu  T'un  and  Yung  Le  Tien  were  fif- 
teen villages,  from  which  the  light  of  truth  was  shining.  The  light 
went  out  in  all  except  four,  not  a  single  Christian  in  the  other  villages 
surviving  the  storm.  Refugees  from  four  paces  succeeded  in  escaping 
to  the  legations  or  to  some  more  remote  shelter. 


302      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

On  the  first  Sunday  in  June,  1900,  the  T'ungchou 
missionaries  met  for  the  last  time  with  the  company 
of  Christians  there.  As  we  sat  in  the  woman's  meeting- 
place  waiting  between  the  services,  one  after  another 
told  of  her  fears  or  her  faith  as  she  watched  the  on- 
coming storm.  Mrs.  Fay's  face  was  bright  and  calm 
as  she  said : 

"For  weeks  I  have  been  so  troubled  and  restless. 
I  have  constantly  had  at  my  hand  a  bundle  of  clothing 
ready  to  run  at  the  least  alarm.  But  the  fear  and 
anxiety  are  all  gone  now.  Whether  life  or  death  awaits 
me,  I  am  trusting  in  God." 

Mrs.  Fay's  youngest  child,  her  Benjamin,  the  only 
one  of  her  sons  who  was  a  Christian,  had  graduated 
from  the  North  China  College  two  years  before,  and 
gone  to  teach  in  distant  Shansi.  Many  months  after 
her  death  a  haggard,  footsore  traveler,  who  had  stood 
weeks  at  the  door  of  death,  who  had  mourned  in 
Shansi  many  a  martyred  friend,  drew  near  his  village 
home,  hoping  to  look  into  the  faces  of  father  and 
mother  and  find  comfort.*  Standing  by  the  ruins  of 
that  home  he  heard  that  they  too  were  gone.  Let 
him  tell  the  story  of  their  death  in  his  own  words. 
Perhaps  some  will  blame  the  heartbroken  son  for  see- 
ing heaven's  light  beaming  through  the  door  by  which 
his  parents  left  earth's  agonies.  He  did  not  look  on 
their  death  as  suicide.  Death  was  certain ;  it  was  only 
a  choice  of  how  they  should  die.  It  is  difficult  for  us 
to  understand  the  horror  with  which  the  Chinese  re- 
gard the  mutilation  of  the  body,  and.  Christians  who 
for  themselves  could  face  with  calmness  death  in  its 
most  cruel  form,  were  sorely  tempted  to  spare  their 
friends,  their  village,  the  sorrow  and  disgrace  of  see- 
ing their  mangled  bodies  lying  on  the  street. 


*The  story  of  Fay  Ch'i  Ho  is  given  in  Chapter  III. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRvS      303 


FAY   CIl  I    HO  S  STORY 

When  the  Boxers  began  their  work  of  slaughter 
in  T'ungchoii,  and  the  missionaries  and  native  Chris- 
tians had  decided  to  take  refuge  in  Peking,  my  parents 
planned  to  go  with  them,  and  had  already  hired  a  cart. 
But  a  neighbor  and  my  second  brother  earnestly  op- 
posed their  going,  saying  that  there  were  in  Peking 
only  a  few  hundred  foreign  soldiers.  They  certainly 
could  not  protect  all  of  the  native  Christians,  and  if 
the  Christians  were  all  gathered  in  one  place,  and  the 
Boxers  broke  in,  there  would  be  no  escape  for  a  single 
one ;  not  even  their  dead  bodies  would  be  left  for 
their  friends.  It  would  be  far  better  to  hide  in  some 
retired  spot  where  there  might  be  some  hope  of  life. 
So  my  parents  changed  their  minds  and  dismissed  the 
cart.  This  was  the  mistake  of  my  parents ;  but  it  must 
have  been  God's  will  to  take  them  with  other  disciples 
to  their  home  above. 

When  the  missionaries  left  T'ungchou  the  reign  of 
terror  began.  Soon  the  mission  buildings  were  in 
ashes,  and  through  street  and  alley  and  village  hamlet 
the  Boxers  hunted  down  the  Christians.  My  parents 
first  took  refuge  in  Mohammedan  Alley  with  a  Moham- 
medan named  Yen,  whom  my  father  knew.  The  work 
of  carnage  went  on  in  the  city,  not  only  Christians, 
but  all  who  had  the  slightest  connection  with  them 
and  the  foreigners  falling  victims.  So  Mr.  Yen  grew 
fearful  that  some  one  would  tell  the  Boxers  that  my 
parents  were  hiding  in  his  home,  and  told  them  they 
must  leave.  They  decided  to  go  to  their  village  home 
in  Wu  Chia  Ying.  Perhaps  the  Boxers  there  would 
pity  them,  and  spare  their  lives. 

They  did  not  dare  go  together ;  so  first  my  second 
brother  started  with  my  father.     He  was  sixty-four 


304      CHINA'S  BOOK  O^  MARTYRS 

years  old,  and  he  walked  with  faltering  steps  and 
downcast  head,  his  hands  as  cold  as  ice.  My  brother 
said  that  my  father,  during  those  last  fearful  days 
on  earth,  seemed  constantly  to  realize  that  his  hours 
were  numbered. 

The  next  day  my  brother  went  back  to  T'ungchou 
for  my  mother;  but  he  sought  for  her  in  vain  at  the 
home  of  the  Mohammedan.  Then  he  searched  every- 
where, but  got  no  clue  to  her  whereabouts,  until  at 
last  he  found  her  in  a  little  shop  belonging  to  one  of 
our  neighbors. 

"My  dear  son  !"  cried  my  mother.  "I  truly  thought 
that  I  should  never  again  see  your  face." 

Then  she  told  of  her  experiences.  After  my  father 
and  brother  had  left,  some  one  told  the  Mohammedan 
that  the  Boxers  knew  that  he  was  concealing  Chris- 
tians in  his  home,  and  that  if  they  were  not  sent 
away  immediately  his  own  family  would  perish  with 
them.  So  my  mother,  with  her  fourteen-year-old 
grandchild,  Ch'ang  So,  went  to  an  inn,  hoping  to  find 
shelter  for  a  night.  But  the  landlord  knew  they  were 
Christians,  and  refused  to  take  them  in.  So  they 
walked  to  the  court  where  they  had  lived  for  many 
years,  but  hardly  had  they  entered  the  gate  when  a 
neighbor  called  out :  "Please  leave  us  at  once.  Do  n't 
involve  us."  Another  said,  "Old  lady,  do  n't  you  want 
to  keep  your  head  on  your  shoulders?" 

So  my  mother  and  nephew  turned  away  and  wan- 
dered up  and  down  the  streets.  There  was  no  road 
into  heaven ;  there  was  no  door  into  the  earth.  Sud- 
denly they  saw  approaching  a  large  band  of  Boxers 
in  battle  array.  "My  time  to  die  has  come,"  thought 
my  mother;  for  every  day  for  years  she  had  gone  to 
the  mission,  and  she  had  talked  much  with  the  women 
in  the  dispensary.     Surely  some  one  in  that  company 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      305 

would  recognize  her.  So  she  and  the  boy  stood  still, 
awaiting  death.  Straight  on  walked  the  Boxers,  and 
not  one  noticed  her.  For  half  a  day  they  walked  the 
streets,  and  in  the  evening  they  came  to  the  little  shop 
belonging  to  a  neighbor.  Moved  with  deep  pity  for 
my  mother,  wandering  without  rest  for  her  weary  feet, 
he  told  her  that  she  might  hide  there,  but  that  she 
must  quickly  find  some  other  shelter,  for  it  would  not 
do  to  stay  in  the  shop  long. 

It  was  noon  the  next  day  when  my  brother  found 
her  there.  Not  daring  to  leave  by  daylight,  they  staid 
until  just  before  daybreak,  then  the  three  started  to- 
gether for  the  village  eight  miles  away. 

Three  or  four  years  before,  my  mother  had  broken 
her  leg,  and  it  was  still  difficult  for  her  to  walk.  All 
day  they  pressed  on  in  the  blazing  sun,  and  at  sunset 
they  were  near  the  village.  Several  times  on  the  way 
they  had  met  Boxers,  but  fortunately  they  were  not 
recognized.  Until  deep  darkness  fell  they  hid  in  a 
quiet  spot  outside  the  village,  then  tried  to  steal  unseen 
into  their  home.  But  they  met  a  neighbor  on  the  way, 
and,  though  he  promised  not  to  tell  that  he  had  seen 
them,  the  promise  was  soon  broken,  and  before  many 
days  passed  it  was  known,  even  in  neighboring  villages, 
that  my  parents  had  returned  home. 

The  Boxers  in  our  own  village  could  not  bear  to 
lay  violent  hands  on  these  old  people  whom  they  had 
known  so  many  years  as  honest  and  peaceful,  never 
offending  their  neighbors.  So  for  several  days  they 
were  allowed  to  live  in  their  home.  But  not  far  from 
our  village  was  the  town  of  Niu  Mu  T'un,  where 
swarms  of  cruel,  bloodthirsty  Boxers  gathered.  Al- 
ready they  had  slain  many  Christians  in  that  region, 
and  when  they  heard  that  my  parents  were  still  living 
in  their  home,  they  sent  a  message  to  our  village  band 
20 


3o6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

of  Boxers :  "We  hear  that  two  Christians  are  hiding 
in  your  village.  It  is  your  duty  to  attend  to  this,  and 
if  you  delay,  and  still  suffer  them  to  live,  we  shall  send 
men  to  kill  them.  Bad  indeed  will  this  be  for  your 
reputation.  Act  quickly  or  you  will  regret  it."  After 
they  received  this  letter,  the  Boxers  decided  that  they 
must  kill  my  parents. 

All  these  days  my  parents  had  been  hidden  in  a  tiny 
room,  not  even  daring  to  speak  aloud.  No  friends  or 
relations  dared  to  go  to  see  them,  and  my  uncle  for- 
bade any  of  my  parents'  grandchildren  coming  to  his 
house.  Day  and  night  my  uncle's  family  burned  in- 
cense in  their  home  and  bowed  before  the  gods,  and, 
strangest  of  all,  my  uncle  had  his  two  daughters  prac- 
tice the  rites  of  the  "Red  Lanterns,"  fearing  that  the 
sins  of  my  parents  would  implicate  them. 

On  June  19th  a  leading  Boxer  went  to  our  home 
with  this  message :  "The  great  leader,  moved  by  the 
spirits  of  the  gods,  has  decided  that  you  two  old  people 
should  be  killed.  But  we  have  considered  that  you 
have  never  committed  an  offense  against  us,  so  the 
leader  graciously  allows  you  to  take  your  own  lives 
to-night.  If  you  are  not  willing  to  commit  suicide  to- 
night, in  the  early  morning  light  the  Boxers  will  come 
with  their  swords  and  cut  you  in  pieces." 

At  once  my  parents  decided  to  flee,  and  my  second 
brother  wished  to  go  with  them,  but  my  uncle  and  my 
older  brother  said:  "Escape  is  utterly  impossible. 
There  are  Boxers  everywhere,  and  after  you  are  killed, 
not  even  a  bone  can  be  found.  If  you  die  in  your  own 
home  we  can  bury  you  here."  The  Boxer  who  had 
brought  the  message,  the  village  constable,  and  many 
leading  men  in  the  village,  all  came  urging  my  parents 
to  commit  suicide,  and  thus  escape  the  cruel  swords. 

They  circled  around  them  with  their  importunities, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      307 

and  vain  were  the  efforts  of  my  parents  to  escape. 
They  could  only  prepare  for  death.  So  that  night  my 
mother  called  about  her  all  her  children  and  grand- 
children and  other  relatives,  and  spoke  many  words 
of  farewell  and  loving  admonition.  She  divided  among 
them  her  jewelry,  and  the  little  money  which  she  had 
in  her  hands,  for  mementos,  and  gave  directions  about 
her  burial. 

That  little  time,  more  precious  than  thousands  of 
gold,  flew  all  too  quickly.  Midnight  passed;  then  they 
heard  the  cocks  crowing.  Again  the  village  leaders 
urged  my  parents  to  make  haste,  for  with  light  the 
Boxers  would  come.  The  final  farewells  were  said, 
and  as  those  who  were  doomed  to  die  stepped  over 
the  threshold,  men,  women,  and  children  who  loved 
them  gathered  about  the  door  with  loud  lamentations. 
A  large  company  of  village  neighbors,  the  constable, 
my  uncle,  and  oldest  brother  walked  with  them  toward 
a  pond  southeast  of  the  village.  The  night  was  still 
very  dark,  the  path  was  not  plain,  and  young  men 
supported  the  steps  of  my  father  and  mother  as  they 
walked. 

My  father  said  to  the  young  man  who  was  leading 
him,  "Are  you  not  Kao  Ssu?"  "Yes,"  was  the  reply. 
"And  are  you  not  afraid  to  do  this  for  me?"  "I  am 
not  afraid."  "That  is  good,"  said  my  father,  and  no 
other  words  passed  his  lips  before  he  died. 

The  man  who  was  supporting  my  mother  had  been 
our  friend  for  many  years.  As  they  walked  my  mother 
said :  "I  little  thought  that  it  would  come  to  this, — that 
we  must  leave  the  earth.  My  heart  is  very  anxious  for 
my  youngest  son,  Ch'i  Ho,  for  I  know  not  whether 
he  is  living  or  dead.  If  he  ever  returns  to  our  village, 
will  you,  for  the  sake  of  his  old  parents,  care  for  him 
and  help  him?" 


3o8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Soon  they  reached  the  pond.  My  father  knew  that 
for  him  all  earthly  things  were  ended ;  the  time  had 
come  for  him  to  go  to  the  Savior  in  whom  he  had 
trusted  so  many  years.  So  with  a  heart  full  of  hope, 
without  pausing  on  the  brink  of  the  pond,  he  plunged 
in.  But  in  my  mother's  heart  grief  and  joy  were 
mingled;  grief,  that  she  must  leave  the  loved  ones 
to  whom  her  heart  clung  so  fondly  in  that  hour;  joy, 
that  she  would  soon  be  with  Jesus,  whom  she  had 
loved  so  long.  So  after  my  father  had  gone,  she  sat 
down  on  the  edge  of  the  pond,  singing  one  of  the 
hymns  which  she  loved.  Would  that  I  knew  what 
hymn  she  sang  that  night ;  but  no  Christians  were 
with  her,  and  no  one  cared  or  understood. 

My  uncle's  heart  was  filled  with  anger  when  he 
heard  my  mother  singing.  By  believing  in  Jesus,  by 
following  the  foreigners,  she  had  brought  herself  to 
death's  door,  and  now  she  sat  there  singing  a  Christian 
hymn!  What  would  the  neighbors  think?  In  his 
rage  he  strode  forward,  and  with  a  brutal  kick  sent 
my  loved  mother  into  the  pond. 

Soon  two  bodies  floated  to  the  surface  of  the  water, 
but  the  souls  of  my  parents  were  happy  with  Jesus, 
whom  they  loved  and  trusted. 

Dawn  was  flushing  the  east  when  the  dead  bodies 
were  lifted  from  the  pond,  and  laid  on  the  bank. 
There  they  were  left  until  permission  could  be  obtained 
from  the  Boxers  to  bury  them. 

True  to  their  word,  the  Boxers  came  that  morning 
to  our  home,  an  armed  band  of  forty  or  fifty.  My 
oldest  brother  and  the  neighbors  burned  incense  and 
bowed  down  to  them  entreating,  'Tlease,  teacher- 
brother,  grant  us  grace,  for  the  two  old  people  are 
dead."    The  Boxers  prepared  to  set  fire  to  our  house; 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      309 

but  tlic  nci^c^libors  feared  that  the  flames  would  spread 
to  their  building-,  and  begged  that  the  house  be  torn 
down  instead.  So  all  set  to  work  to  assist  the  Boxers 
in  the  work  of  destruction,  and  when  it  was  finished 
the  Boxers  took  the  wood  from  our  house  and  all  of 
our  possessions  to  their  camp. 

Later  my  relations  and  neighbors  begged  the 
Boxer  chief  to  allow  them  to  bury  my  parents,  and  he 
consented,  but  forbade  the  wearing  of  mourning  or 
weeping  for  them.  Still  their  children  and  grand- 
children shed  silent  tears  for  them,  and  neighbors 
wept  as  they  thought  of  the  death  of  those  innocent 
old  people  who  had  lived  among  them. 

DEACON  LI  YUN  SHENG 

If  there  was  a  man  in  T'ungchou  whom  the  tongue 
of  calumny,  even  of  criticism,  was  afraid  to  touch, 
that  man  was  Deacon  Li.  Yet  he  had  a  position  in 
one  of  those  sinkholes  of  iniquity,  a  Chinese  yamen. 
The  official  in  charge  and  his  colleagues  in  office  all 
respected  him  for  his  sterling  virtues,  and  although  he 
alone  of  that  company  was  a  Christian,  he  was  so 
much  loved  that  little  persecution  or  ridicule  came 
to  him.  What  can  ridicule  effect  with  a  man  who 
always  shows  his  colors,  and  who  is  as  firm  as  he  is 
unassuming?  The  same  tribute  of  love  and  esteem 
was  paid  to  him  in  his  Church  relations.  His  official 
duties  left  him  much  leisure,  and  he  spent  hours  every 
week  in  the  street  chapel,  sometimes  taking  his  turn 
in  talking  to  the  company  which  gathered,  always  by 
his  wisdom  and  his  spirit  of  brotherliness  helping  in 
the  soulwinning  there.  Not  a  cent  of  remuneration 
did  Deacon  Li  ever  receive  for  his  services.  He  was 
no   rice   Christian.     Tall,   wellformed,   with   a   native 


3IO      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

dignity  which  always  marked  him  as  a  gentleman, 
he  was  one  in  whom  our  T'ungchou  Church  felt  a 
just  pride. 

When  missionaries  and  native  Christians  were  flee- 
ing from  the  Boxers  during  those  first  days  of  June, 
Deacon  Li  said  to  friends  who  were  starting  on  their 
flight:  "I  shall  not  run  away.  This  is  my  home, 
and  here  I  shall  stay,  for  life  or  death."  The  official 
of  his  yamen,  who  truly  loved  him,  said :  *'You  have 
not  an  enemy  in  the  city.  Do  n't  be  afraid ;  I  '11  pro- 
tect you."  So  he  lived  on  in  T'ungchou,  and  saw  the 
college  buildings  go  up  in  smoke.  Afterward,  not 
far  from  his  home,  the  mission  in  the  city,  with  its 
fine  new  church,  was  burned  by  the  wild  mob;  later 
the  post-office,  and  not  a  telegraph  pole  was  left  stand- 
ing. Saddest  of  all  were  the  stories  which  he  heard  of 
the  slaughter  of  his  fellow  Christians. 

He  had  been  told  that  he  must  burn  all  his  Chris- 
tian books ;  but  his  Bible  was  too  precious  to  lose,  so 
he  still  kept  it  concealed  in  the  yamen,  and,  like  Daniel 
of  old,  he  read  and  prayed  every  day.  He  was  too 
manly  and  honest  to  conceal  his  abhorrence  of  the 
Boxer  atrocities.  One  morning  he  said  in  the  yamen, 
"The  church,  the  college,  will  be  rebuilt,  and  the 
Boxers  will  be  punished."  These  words  were  repeated 
to  the  Boxers,  and  that  afternoon  about  three  o'clock, 
a  band  of  forty  forced  their  way  in  at  the  yamen 
gate.  Vainly  the  official  tried  to  conceal  Deacon  Li. 
The  men  broke  into  the  private  apartments  of  the 
official's  wife,  and  dragged  out  their  victim.  In  their 
search  through  the  yamen  they  found  his  Bible. 
"What  need  of  further  proof  against  you?"  they  cried 
in  triumph.  You  have  not  given  up  your  religion." 
Then  tearing  the  hated  Book  and  flinging  it  on  the 
ground,  they  said,  "This  is  the  foreigner's  classic ;  burn 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      311 

it!"  As  they  bound  Deacon  Li  and  led  him  out,  he 
said :  "I  believe  in  my  Lord  Jesus.  Though  I  am 
going  to  my  death,  it  is  with  a  willing  heart.  I  do 
not  regret  being  a  Christian." 

The  Boxers  chose  a  manure  pile  near  the  imperial 
granary  as  the  altar  on  which  to  offer  up  their  victim, 
and  each  of  the  forty  knives  seemed  thirsty  for  his 
blood.  It  mattered  not  to  him  that  they  burned  the 
poor  remains,  that  a  few  days  later  they  dug  the  bones 
from  their  shallow  grave  near  the  city  wall,  and  scat- 
tered them  that  they  might  never  rise  again.  His 
eyes  had  seen  the  King  in  his  beauty. 

DEACON    Li's   FAMILY 

Deacon  Li's  wife  was  a  pretty  little  woman,  deli- 
cately nurtured  and  timid  to  a  fault.  It  was  always 
an  ordeal  to  her  to  offend  the  customs  of  her  people 
by  appearing  on  the  public  streets ;  so,  though  she 
usually  attended  the  Sabbath  services,  she  seldom  came 
to  the  prayer-meetings  or  women's  classes.  The  Bible- 
women  always  found  her  a  bright,  eager  scholar,  and 
in  her  home  she  learned  to  read  and  love  the  Bible. 
Her  oldest  girl,  Shu  Mei,  studied  two  years  in  the 
Bridgman  School,  and  one  of  her  teachers  said  en- 
thusiastically, "She  is  the  dearest  child  of  them  all." 
Her  younger  sister  was  even  prettier,  with  the  same 
lovely  smile  and  air  of  refinement,  but  with  a  brighter 
sparkle  in  the  dark  eyes,  and  a  deeper,  pink  glow  in  the 
round  cheeks. 

We  know  little  that  happened  in  the  Deacon's 
pleasant  home  after  the  days  of  terror  came.  Soon 
the  two  girls  were  concealed  in  the  home  of  their 
father's  aunt,  who  was  not  a  Christian.  The  Boxers 
suspected  that  they  were  there,  and  set  a  neighbor 
to  act  as  spy.     If  this  neighbor  saw  that  much  food 


312      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

was  bought,  she  woald  remark  to  the  aunt,  **How 
much  more  than  usual  you  are  eatmg!  Your  grand- 
nieces  must  be  staying  with  you ;"  but  the  aunt  only 
replied  feebly,  "We  eat  a  great  deal  in  our  family." 
The  Boxers  were  not  satisfied,  and  one  day  a  rough 
band  came  to  search.  The  terrified  girls  were  shut 
into  a  large  cupboard,  and  there  they  crouched  while 
every  room,  every  corner,  every  pile  of  bedding  was 
carefully  examined.  Baffled,  the  Boxers  went  away, 
and  the  almost  fainting  children,  drenched  with  per- 
spiration, were  taken  away  from  their  hiding-place. 
Then  came  a  still  sadder  day.  That  afternoon 
when  the  blows  of  swords  were  falling  on  Deacon 
Li's  prostrate  body,  his  aunt  and  cousin  viewed  the 
terrible  sight  from  a  distance,  weeping  bitterly.  Then 
the  Boxers  came  up  with  their  swords,  saying  threat- 
eningly, "Stop  crying;  it  will  break  our  altar."  The 
two  women  hurried  home,  barred  their  gate,  and  told 
the  children  of  their  father's  fate.  After  dark,  a 
woman,  drenched  with  rain,  bedraggled  with  mud, 
sobbing  so  that  she  could  not  speak,  knocked  at  the 
gate.  It  was  Mrs.  Li.  It  is  not  known  where  she  was 
when  the  Boxers  killed  her  husband  and  looted  her 
home.  Bitter  indeed  were  the  tears  which  the  desolate 
widow  and  her  daughters  shed  together.  On  earth 
there  was  no  place  of  refuge  for  them.  The  Boxers 
would  surely  hunt  them  down  as  soon  as  day  dawned. 
The  aunt  feared  to  have  them  remain  longer  in  her 
home,  so  Mrs.  Li  said  to  her,  "There  are  two  families 
of  Christians  who  are  going  to  flee  at  midnight ;  I  will 
join  them."  Taking  her  girls  by  the  hand,  Mrs.  Li 
led  them  to  the  bank  of  a  deep  pond  not  far  from 
the  place  of  their  father's  martyrdom.  The  fearful, 
grief-stricken  woman,  who  had  always  leaned  on  her 
husband  more  than  on  her  God,  had  taken  counsel  of 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      313 

despair.  Among  all  the  scenes  of  that  summer  of 
horror,  I  know  none  sadder  than  this, — the  starless 
sky,  the  dark  water  of  the  filthy  pond,  the  woman 
with  tear-blinded  eyes  holding  a  child  by  either  hand, 
then  the  deathly  circling  of  the  waters  as  they  tried 
to  hide  the  poor  bodies. 

Even  death  could  not  shield  them ;  the  merciful 
waters  could  not  hide  them.  By  night  the  next  day 
the  Boxers  knew  the  secret  of  the  pond.  One  named 
Hu  said :  "This  will  not  do  at  all.  Those  bodies  will 
rise  again  on  the  third  day,  or  their  ghosts  will  make 
trouble.  Those  bodies  must  be  cut  to  mincemeat,  then 
burned."     And  they  did  as  he  commanded. 

Must  we  close  with  this  revolting  picture?  For 
thousands  of  years  the  Chinese  have  been  taught  that 
suicide  under  such  circumstances  is  the  highest  virtue. 
Among  the  Christians  of  North  China  I  never  knew 
of  a  case  of  suicide  until  the  horrors  of  that  massacre 
came.  That  little  woman  in  her  sheltered  home  may 
never  have  been  t«aught  the  sacredness  of  God-given 
life.  Let  us  leave  her  and  her  beautiful  children  in 
the  hands  of  the  God  who  knew  their  hearts,  and  who 
loved  them. 

MRS.  t'ang 

All  of  the  sunshine  that  ever  came  into  Mrs.  T'ang's 
life  came  from  Christianity.  Her  relatives  were  a 
notoriously  wicked  mother,  a  drunken  husband,  a  son 
who  found  occupation  in  an  idol's  temple  and  was  one 
of  the  first  in  T'ungchou  to  join  the  Boxers,  a  semi- 
idiotic  daughter-in-law,  and  a  sickly  grandchild.  Her 
earthly  portion  was  hunger,  cold,  blows,  and  curses ; 
her  one  joy,  meeting  with  God's  people  and  reading 
her  Bible  and  hymn-book.  One  eye  was  blind,  the 
other  so  nearsighted  that  she  had  to  hold  her  book 


314      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

close  to  it;  yet  she  had  a  bright  mind,  and  such  an 
intense  desire  to  learn  that  soon  she  could  read  the 
Bible  and  all  simple  Christian  books.  "Pilgrim's 
Progress"  was  a  great  favorite  with  her,  and  she 
often  compared  Christian's  joys  and  sorrows  with  her 
own.  Her  tiny  library  had  to  be  replaced  more  than 
once  after  her  husband  had  committed  it  to  the  flames 
in  a  drunken  rage. 

Once,  when  she  came  sobbing  to  tell  us  that  she 
had  not  a  book  left,  she  added,  with  a  note  of  joy  and 
triumph  in  her  voice,  "But  there  's  one  thing  that  he 
can  not  take  away  from  me ;  that 's  the  Bible  verses 
which  I  have  laid  up  in  my  heart."  After  that  Mrs. 
T'ang  was  more  diligent  than  ever  in  committing 
Scripture  to  memory.  One  night  when  she  was  staying 
with  a  women's  class  at  the  mission,  her  husband  came 
and  dragged  her  home,  beating  and  reviling  her  as  he 
led  her  through  the  streets.  Yet  often  in  the  women's 
meetings  she  would  pray  for  her  husband's  conversion 
with  heartbroken  importunity.  She  went  out  to  work 
by  the  day,  and  her  coming  to  church  on  Sunday  often 
meant  that  she  could  have  but  one  meal  to  eat  that  day. 

After  the  slaughter  of  Christians  began  in  T'ung- 
chou,  Mrs.  T'ang's  son  said  to  her,  "I  '11  buy  you  some 
opium;  then  you  can  die  without  having  your  body 
mutilated."  But  Mrs.  T'ang  steadfastly  refused  to  take 
poison.  The  Boxers  seized  her  at  her  home,  and  as 
they  dragged  her  through  the  streets  she  said :  "This 
is  my  time  of  suffering,  but  it  will  be  brief;  then  I 
shall  have  an  eternity  of  joy.  But  for  you  who  are 
killing  me,  there  will  be  everlasting  sorrow."  Per- 
haps it  was  because  of  these  words  that  they  hacked 
her  poor  body  into  little  fragments.  Mrs.  T'ang  was 
beyond  caring  for  that;  her  "eternity  of  joy"  had 
begun. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      315 

KAO  HSIN's  story 

[Kao  Hsin,  the  evangelist  in  charge  of  the  out- 
station  at  Fu  Ho,  was  a  graduate  of  the  college  and 
seminary.] 

It  was  Monday,  June  5th,  when  the  long-dreaded 
Boxer  altar  was  set  up  in  our  village  of  Fu  Ho,  four 
miles  north  of  T'ungchou.  For  weeks  a  spell  of  horror 
had  brooded  over  us,  and  one  by  one  the  children 
dropped  out  of  the  day-school  taught  by  my  wife, 
the  more  timid  ones  from  non-Christian  families  going 
first.  So  the  school  was  closed  earlier  than  usual 
for  the  summer  vacation.  My  family  consisted  of 
my  mother,  my  wife,  an  eight-year-old  son,  a  three- 
year-old  daughter,  who,  being  very  deaf,  had  never 
learned  to  talk,  and  a  boy  fifteen  months  old.  My 
wife's  mother  and  other  relatives  lived  in  an  adjoin- 
ing place,  while  in  our  yard  were  the  day-school  build- 
ing and  the  chapel,  where,  every  Sunday,  Christians 
met  for  worship.  At  the  time  when  my  story  begins 
my  only  sister's  oldest  son,  Li  Jui,  was  staying  with  me. 
His  father,  Li  Te  Kuei,  was  the  evangelist  in  charge 
of  the  out-station  of  Yung  Le  Tien,  eighteen  miles 
south  of  T'ungchou.  Li  Jui,  who  was  a  student  in  the 
North  China  Academy  at  T'ungchou,  had  come  to 
my  home  at  the  close  of  school ;  for  his  father  had 
said  to  me,  "Don't  let  my  boy  come  home;  I  want  one 
member  of  my  family  left  alive."  June  7th,  Li  Jui  was 
at  T'ungchou,  and  there  heard  of  the  massacre  at  Niu 
Mu  T'un,  only  six  miles  from  his  father's  home.  It 
was  a  sad  family  circle  to  which  he  told  this  story 
when  he  came  to  us  in  the  evening.  Before  light  the 
next  morning  we  were  on  our  way  to  T'ungchou,  eager 
for  tidings,  yet  dreading  what  our  eyes  might  sec  and 


3i6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

our  ears  hear.  The  city  compound,  a  center  of  busy 
Hfe  the  day  before,  was  almost  deserted.  Two  or 
three  Christians  had  hired  donkeys,  and  were  just 
starting  for  Peking.  ''The  missionaries  all  went  to 
Peking  in  the  night,"  they  said,  "and  they  left  word 
that  any  of  us  who  wished  to  go  might  follow  them." 
We  still  lingered  in  the  city  until  the  tidings  which 
we  dreaded  reached  us :  Li  Jui's  father,  mother,  and 
three  little  brothers,  with  we  knew  not  how  many  of 
the  Yung  Le  Tien  Christians,  had  been  slaughtered. 
Dumb  with  sorrow  we  turned  homeward.  As  we  went 
out  of  the  north  gate  of  the  city  we  happened  to  meet 
a  messenger  from  P'ing  Ku,  an  out-station  forty  miles 
to  the  northeast.  He  came  to  bring  word  that  the 
deacon  in  charge  of  the  station,  Li  Wen  Jung,  was 
prostrated  with  fever;  his  wife,  a  frail  little  woman, 
was  unable  to  care  for  him,  and  their  neighbors,  none 
of  whom  were  Christians,  were  afraid  to  help  them. 
"Are  there  Boxers  in  P'ing  Ku  yet  ?"  "No,  but  there 
are  all  sorts  of  wild  rumors,  and  they  do  need  help." 
The  appeal  touched  my  heart,  and  I  wondered  if,  in  this 
remote  mountain  region,  we  might  not  find  a  place  of 
refuge,  and  at  the  same  time  carry  help  and  comfort 
to  our  friends.  It  was  dark  when  we  reached  home. 
As  we  told  the  stories  we  had  heard  my  mother  said: 
"You  and  Li  Jui  must  go  to  P'ing  Ku.  You  will  not 
be  safe  here,  for  the  Boxers  are  hunting  down  all 
the  leaders  in  the  Church.  Your  wife  and  children 
will  be  safe  with  heathen  relatives  in  the  country; 
far  safer  than  if  you  are  with  them,  for  you  have 
preached  in  every  hamlet  about  here,  and  every  one 
knows  you."  "And  what  about  yourself?"  I  asked. 
"I  shall  stay  here,"  she  replied,  positively.  "I  have 
lived  here  all  my  life,  and  have  not  an  enemy  in  the 
town.     Perhaps  by  staying  I  can  keep  the  property 


J- 


r.        — 
r.        X 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      317 

from  destruction.  Anyway,  I  am  too  old  to  climb 
the  mountains  with  you  on  my  poor,  crippled  feet,  and 
I  feel  safer  here  than  I  would  in  Peking." 

The  next  morning  my  mother  kept  urging  us  to 
scatter,  and  my  wife,  taking  her  children,  went  to  her 
grandmother's  in  a  little  village  three  miles  to  the 
northeast.  I  thought  of  the  sickness  and  loneliness 
of  the  deacon's  family  in  P'ing  Ku,  of  my  brother's 
wish  that  Li  Jui  might  be  spared  to  keep  his  name 
alive,  of  my  mother's  argument  that  those  I  loved 
best  would  be  safer  when  I  was  far  away ;  so,  at 
ten  o'clock,  my  nephew  and  I  left  our  home,  little 
dreaming  how  many  weary  miles  we  should  wander, 
or  what  a  horrible  fate  awaited  those  we  left  behind. 
Tears  streamed  down  my  face,  but  my  mother  was 
calm  and  brave.  "Can  we  not  bear  a  little  suffering 
for  Jesus?  If  it  is  his  will,  we  shall  meet  again;  if 
not,  let  us  trust  him,  even  unto  death." 

At  noon  the  next  day  we  reached  P'ing  Ku.  Dea- 
con Li,  although  much  better,  was  still  in  bed,  and 
his  wife  sobbed  convulsively  when  we  entered.  Their 
messenger  had  returned  the  day  before  with  the  sad 
tidings  of  T'ungchou ;  they  had  tried  to  hire  carts 
to  take  them  to  T'ungchou,  but  no  one  dared  to  go. 
"You  are  safer  here,"  I  said.  "If  the  Boxers  organ- 
ize here,  the  mountains  are  near  for  a  refuge." 

The  next  day  was  Sunday,  a  strange,  sad  day,  for 
only  one  Christian,  Mr.  Kuo,  joined  our  little  circle 
for  prayer.  We  read  a  chapter  from  "The  Christian's 
Secret  of  a  Happy  Life,"  and  the  thought  that  every- 
thing which  comes  to  us  is  the  appointment  of  God's 
loving  will  brought  comfort  to  us  all. 

Deacon  Li  was  improving  rapidly,  and  I  felt  that 
his  wife  and  two  children  should  at  once  find  a  refuge 
in  the  quiet  mountains.    Mr.  Kuo,  who  lived  with  his 


3i8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

family  in  a  quiet  mountain  hut,  consented  to  shelter 
them,  and  share  with  them  his  humble  fare.  So, 
about  three  o'clock  Monday  morning,  Deacon  Li  and 
I  stole  out  with  Mrs.  Li  and  the  children  to  a  rendez- 
vous two  miles  away,  where  Mr.  Kuo  had  promised  to 
meet  us  with  a  donkey  for  Mrs.  Li  to  ride.  After 
meeting  Mr.  Kuo,  Deacon  Li  and  I  went  back  to  his 
home.  There  we  staid  until  another  Sabbath  came. 
Neighbors  began  to  talk  threateningly,  and  ugly  rumors 
flew  everywhere.  A  friendly  yamen  runner  brought 
warning  of  a  plot  to  bind  us  and  give  us  up  to  the 
Boxers  whenever  they  arrived  in  P'ing  Ku,  thus  win- 
ning their  favor.  So  at  three  o'clock  Monday  morning 
we  fled,  Deacon  Li  to  join  his  family  seven  miles  away, 
and  then  take  them  to  a  safer  refuge. 

I  left  behind  me  my  long  teacher  robe,  my  foreign 
spectacles,  and  my  Bible,  and  wore  the  coarse  costume 
of  a  laborer.  My  nephew  and  I  were  not  used  to  moun- 
tain climbing,  and  soon  grew  weary;  then  we  lost  our 
way  in  the  wild  gorges.  The  heavens  were  black  with 
a  coming  storm,  and  there  was  no  sign  of  a  human 
habitation.  In  our  bewilderment  we  turned  to  God 
with  a  prayer  for  guidance.  Just  then  I  saw  two  crows, 
and  prayed,  "O  Lord,  direct  their  flight,  and  we  will 
follow."  They  flew  toward  the  northeast,  and  going 
two  miles  in  that  direction  we  came  to  a  little  house. 
It  was  already  raining.  We  knocked  at  the  door,  and 
a  young  man  who  was  working  in  the  garden  came 
toward  us.  He  responded  cordially  to  our  appeal  for 
shelter,  and  although  he  knew  that  we  were  Christians, 
he  kept  us  more  than  a  week,  sharing  his  coarse  food 
with  us,  while  we  helped  him  in  his  garden  work. 

All  these  days  a  terrible  weight  oppressed  mc,  and 
if  I  fell  asleep  at  night  I  was  haunted  by  dreams.  One 
day,  about  noon,  I  lay  resting  in  a  state  between  sleep- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      319 

ing-  and  waking,  when  a  horrible  vision  of  some  one 
covered  with  blood  from  streaming  wounds  appeared 
to  me.  I  think  it  must  have  been  the  day  my  mother 
died.  Every  day  tears  kept  welling  to  my  eyes,  and 
my  orphaned  nephew  often  wept  with  me.  Sometimes 
we  would  find  a  lonely  spot  in  the  mountains  where  we 
could  look  toward  home,  and  try  to  comfort  one  an- 
other. But  when  we  were  with  others  we  were  careful 
not  to  betray  the  fact  that  we  were  Christians,  as  it 
might  bring  trouble  to  our  host.  We  heard  cannon- 
ading, and  knew  that  somewhere  the  storm  of  battle 
was  raging. 

I  wrote  a  letter  to  my  family,  telling  them  to  come 
to  me,  or,  if  they  did  not  think  it  best  to  come,  to  send 
me  money.  I  hired  a  messenger  to  take  this  letter  to 
Fu  Ho,  but  after  going  only  twenty  miles  he  returned, 
as  there  were  Boxer  altars  on  every  hand,  and  all  trav- 
elers were  examined.  I  blamed  him  bitterly  for  cow- 
ardice then,  but  now  I  know  it  was  God's  hindering. 
Had  he  reached  Fu  Ho  he  would  not  have  found  my 
friends,  my  letter  would  have  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  Boxers,  and  they  would  have  sought  me  out. 
Although  it  had  been  rumored  that  I  was  dead,  some 
of  the  Boxers  did  not  believe  it ;  so  they  formed  a 
cordon,  taking  in  several  villages,  and  drew  the  circle 
in  narrower  and  narrower,  hunting  me  down  like  a 
stalked  deer. 

There  were  no  Boxers  in  our  quiet  mountain  vil- 
lage ;  but  soon  an  altar  was  started  in  a  larger  place 
near,  and  a  friend  came  to  tell  our  host  that  the  rumor 
was  abroad  that  he  was  harboring  Christians.  Our 
hostess  grew  nervous,  and  unwilling  to  involve  others 
in  difficulty,  we  decided  to  leave  at  once.  Where  should 
we  go?  Li  Jui  wanted  to  go  back  to  T'ungchou.  I, 
too,  felt  that  I  must  know  the  fate  of  my  dear  ones. 


320      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

We  had  just  gone  through  a  mountain-pass  when  we 
met  a  Christian  named  Yang  Erh  from  a  village  near 
T'ungchou. 

"Where  are  you  going  ?"  he  asked  in  great  surprise. 

''Back  home." 

*'It  won't  do,"  he  said.  "I  have  been  hidden  away ; 
but  last  night  I  ventured  to  my  sister's  home,  and  about 
two  in  the  night  the  Boxers  came  hunting  for  me,  and 
I  just  escaped  with  my  life." 

"Then  let  us  go  to  Tientsin." 

"There  is  no  safety  in  that  direction,  either.  The 
only  hope  lies  in  going  beyond  the  Great  Wall." 

So  we  turned  back  and  spent  another  night  in  our 
mountain  village,  and  the  next  morning,  June  27th, 
we  turned  our  faces  northward,  walking  thirty  miles 
that  day.  When  darkness  gathered  we  sought  the  shel- 
ter of  an  inn.  The  innkeeper  looked  at  us  suspiciously, 
saying,  "We  do  not  keep  strangers  here;  who  knows 
who  you  are?"  To  all  of  our  entreaties  he  turned  a 
deaf  ear.  No  one  would  harbor  us.  We  must  lie  down 
to  sleep  in  the  mountains,  without  bedding  or  food.  If 
we  staid  near  a  village  the  barking  dogs  might  betray 
us  to  Boxers ;  if  we  went  far  away,  wild  beasts  might 
find  us.  But  God  was  with  us,  though  the  darkness 
was  over  us,  our  rest  a  stone. 

We  traveled  by  little  side-paths  in  the  mountains  to 
avoid  the  Boxers,  who  guarded  the  great  roads.  Often 
we  lost  our  way,  and  the  paths  were  so  hard  to  climb 
that  at  most  we  made  only  twenty-five  miles  a  day. 
Sometimes  we  could  get  food  and  lodging  in  the  little 
hamlets ;  but  though  there  were  no  Boxers  here,  the 
people  were  very  suspicious.  No  matter  how  thirsty 
we  were  we  did  not  dare  go  near  a  well  ourselves,  lest 
some  one  suspect  that  we  were  throwing  in  poison; 
and  we  were  very  cautious  about  approaching  a  door, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      321 

lest  they  accuse  us  of  smearing  it  with  blood.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  we  acted  nervous  or  seemed  to  avoid 
people,  we  were  always  stopped  and  questioned.  So 
we  tried  to  put  on  a  bold  face,  and  gave  the  customary 
greetings.  In  every  village  we  were  questioned  as  to 
the  reason  for  our  journey,  and  we  replied  that  we  were 
in  search  of  work ;  for  we  were  almost  penniless,  and 
hoped  to  find  some  work.  Often  on  our  journey  we  had 
to  beg  our  food,  and  many  a  night  we  slept  in  caves. 
Far  beyond  the  Great  Wall,  about  two  hundred  miles 
from  home,  we  fell  in  with  another  traveler,  who,  as  we 
walked  together,  grew  more  and  more  friendly.  He 
took  us  with  him  to  an  inn  where  he  was  acquainted 
with  the  landlord,  and  rest  was  sweet  to  us  weary  way- 
farers. But  twenty  days  of  hunger,  thirst,  fatigue, 
consuming  anxiety,  and  loss  of  sleep,  had  been  too 
much  for  me,  and  that  night  a  severe  attack  of  dysen- 
tery almost  prostrated  me.  We  were  still  about  thirty- 
four  miles  from  home  of  the  man  who  had  befriended 
us.  The  next  morning  he  insisted  upon  my  riding  his 
donkey ;  but  I  was  so  ill  that  we  could  only  go  a  short 
distance  that  day,  and  it  was  afternoon  of  the  second 
day  when  we  reached  his  home.  It  was  the  6th  of 
July,  and  for  nearly  two  weeks  I  was  very  ill.  My  host 
and  his  family  showed  us  every  kindness,  trusting  us 
as  brothers,  finding  Yang  Erh  and  my  nephew  work 
in  a  store  in  the  town,  and  I  worked  there  also  after 
my  strength  returned.  Travelers  were  coming  con- 
tinually, and  so  we  heard  of  the  ravages  of  the  Boxers 
in  Peking, — that  all  of  the  missions  had  been  destroyed, 
and  only  the  legations  and  a  Catholic  cathedral  were 
holding  out.  "The  Chinese  Christians  have  all  been 
slain,"  we  said  ;  for  we  did  not  know  that  many  of  them 
had  been  sheltered  in  the  legations. 

About  the  last  of  July  we  heard  that  foreign  sol- 
21 


322      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

diers  had  captured  Tientsin;  so,  after  a  few  days,  we 
left  our  kind  friends  and  started  southward.  Once 
we  were  stopped  and  searched  by  Boxers  in  uniform, 
but  they  found  no  proof  that  we  were  spies  or  Chris- 
tians. When  we  reached  the  Great  Wall  we  heard  that 
the  allies  were  approaching  T'ungchou.  A  little  later 
we  saw  refugee  soldiers  of  General  Nieh's  army,  loot- 
ing as  they  fled.  When  we  were  forty  miles  from 
Peking  we  heard  that  T'ungchou  was  in  the  hands  of 
foreign  soldiers.  The  next  day,  as  we  went  on  our 
way,  we  heard  cannonading.  It  was  August  14th, 
the  day  Peking  was  captured.  As  we  drew  near  the 
place  where  my  wife  and  children  had  taken  refuge,  I 
hoped  against  hope  that,  during  these  two  months  of 
storm,  God's  miraculous  care  had  kept  some  of  my 
loved  ones.  A  man  whom  I  knew  approached  me,  and 
started  as  if  he  had  seen  a  ghost.  ''What!  You  are 
still  alive?  Where  are  you  going?"  "I  am  going 
home."  "Home !"  you  have  no  home,  for  your  house 
is  burned;  you  have  no  family,  for  the  Boxers  have 
killed  them  all."  I  staggered  on  to  the  home  of  rela- 
tives, where  I  heard  the  details  of  the  tragedy,  and 
learned  that  my  little  deaf  daughter  and  my  aged  grand- 
mother, who  was  not  a  Church  member,  were  the  only 
ones  left  of  my  family.  "The  old  lady  is  so  feeble  and 
foolish,"  the  Boxers  said,  "and  the  child  is  so  little 
and  idiotic;  they  can  never  take  vengeance  on  us."  I 
heard  of  the  slaughter  at  Fu  Ho  of  forty-two  Chris- 
tians and  many  others  who  were  suspected  of  being 
Christians.  All  of  my  wife's  near  relatives  except  two 
brothers  were  among  the  slain.  With  the  exception 
of  myself  and  my  daughter,  only  six  orphan  children 
were  left  of  the  Christian  community  in  Fu  Ho. 

I  was  warned  that  I  must  not  go  to  Fu  Ho  to  see 
these  poor  survivors ;  for  the  Boxers,  though  disbanded, 


CHlx\A'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS      ^^23 

were  still  livinc^  there.  I  must  go  to  T'ungchou,  and 
seek  the  protection  of  American  soldiers.  I  did  not 
know  that  the  T'ungchou  missionaries  aud  hundreds 
of  fellow  Christians  were  still  living  in  Peking.  In 
the  darkness  of  that  night,  fatigued  by  a  day  of  walk- 
ing, faint  for  lack  of  food — for  I  had  walked  thirty 
miles  since  eating  a  meal — benumbed  by  overwhelming 
sorrow,  I  pushed  on  with  Li  Jui  toward  T'ungchou, 
still  several  miles  away.  At  midnight  we  reached  the 
river,  and  saw  many  people,  some  laden  with  stolen 
goods,  some  fleeing  from  the  foreign  soldiers.  In  the 
distance  we  heard  the  occasional  report  of  a  rifle. 
Crossing  the  river  not  far  from  the  city  wall,  we  w^etit 
on  in  the  darkness.  We  came  to  a  sort  of  booth,  and, 
unable  to  crawl  farther,  lay  down  with  dead  bodies 
all  about  us.  Before  day  dawned  an  old  man  passed. 
•'Can  we  get  into  the  city?"  I  asked.  *'Yes,  but  if  the 
foreign  soldiers  call  to  you,  stop  at  once.  They  will 
make  you  work ;  but  if  you  run  they  '11  shoot  you." 
Just  at  daylight,  before  we  had  entered  the  city  gate, 
Russians  came  out  to  impress  laborers.  Soon  we  were 
unloading  rice  and  other  supplies  from  boats  outside  the 
North  Gate.  Once  that  day  I  felt  the  lash  of  the  over- 
seer because,  faint  with  fatigue  and  hunger,  I  dropped 
a  box.  There  were  seventy  or  eighty  in  our  company, 
some  of  them  merchants,  teachers,  or  officials,  whose 
shoulders  had  never  before  carried  a  burden.  We  were 
kicked  and  cufifed,  and  rifles  were  pointed  at  us.  At 
noon  food  was  given  us.  At  night,  guarded  by  sol- 
diers, we  were  formed  in  ranks,  and,  with  soldiers  to 
guard  us,  were  marched  to  the  South  Suburb,  where 
they  halted  us  on  a  bank.  Some  of  the  company 
thought  that  the  Russians  had  taken  us  out  to  shoot 
us.  In  about  half  an  hour  we  saw  two  Russian  can- 
non and  ten  carts  loaded  with  ammunition,  and  soon 


324      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

we  were  all  at  work  helping  the  horses  to  drag  them. 
As  we  struggled  along,  no  better  than  the  beasts,  the 
soldiers  struck  us  with  whips  or  rifles  to  make  us  go 
faster.  A  man  stumbled,  the  wheel  of  the  gun-carriage 
broke  his  leg,  still  the  Russians  beat  him  until  they 
saw  that  he  was  unable  to  rise,  then  left  him  to  die. 
They  drove  us  through  the  street  where  our  city  mis- 
sion had  stood,  and  where  I  had  spent  so  many  happy 
hours.  There  was  not  one  brick  left  upon  another,  and 
my  heart  was  very  sad.  Then  our  drivers  changed 
their  plan,  and  made  us  retrace  our  steps  and  go  south- 
ward. As  we  crossed  the  moat  just  outside  the  city, 
one  of  the  poor  human  beasts  sought  a  refuge  from 
life's  bitterness  in  the  river.  The  Russians  gathered  on 
the  bridge  and  stoned  him  to  death.  Outside  the  city 
we  passed  the  ruins  of  our  once  beautiful  college  build- 
ings. It  was  growing  d-ark,  the  rain  was  falling  in 
torrents,  and  they  marched  us  back  through  the  city, 
part  of  the  way  wading  to  their  knees  in  water. 

So  a  month  was  passed  in  slavery.  Gradually  we 
received  kinder  treatment  when  our  taskmasters  found 
that  we  served  them  faithfully,  and  did  not  try  to  get 
away.  After  about  three  weeks  we  saw  a  man  who 
had  been  an  inquirer,  and  was  just  returning  from  two 
months  of  exile  beyond  the  Great  Wall.  With  him 
was  a  Chinese  who  was  a  member  of  the  Greek  Church 
and  could  speak  a  little  Russian.  He  told  our  masters 
who  we  were,  and  after  that  we  received  less  cruel 
treatment.  This  inquirer  went  on  to  Peking,  and, 
finding  missionaries  there,  told  of  our  plight.  Mean- 
time I  met  a  Christian  in  T'ungchou,  and  heard,  to  my 
great  joy,  that  missionaries  and  Christians  were  still 
living  in  Peking.  Not  long  after  this  an  American 
soldier  came  to  the  Russians  with  a  letter;  we  were 
told  that  we  were  free,  and  soon  we  were  with  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      325 

kind  friends  in  Peking  who  had  effected  our  release. 
There  Li  Jui  found  his  oldest  sister,  a  student  in  the 
Bricjf^man  School,  and  before  many  days  had  passed 
another  sister  was  found  in  a  country  village. 

Not  until  nearly  three  weeks  later  could  I  seek  out 
my  little  daughter  in  Fu  Ho,  and  then  I  went  with  a 
missionary,  guarded  by  American  soldiers.  Soon  after 
we  gathered  together  the  orphan  children  of  Fu  Ho, 
and  took  them  to  Peking. 

1  can  not  tell  you  how  I  felt  when  I  stood  by  the 
charred  ruins  of  my  once  happy  home,  looking  at  the 
rude  heap  of  earth,  under  which  lay  the  bodies  of 
mother,  wife,  and  two  sons.  Let  others  tell  you  the 
story  of  their  death. 

KAO  H sin's  FAMII^Y 

That  sad  Friday  when  Kao  Hsin  and  Li  Jui  started 
for  the  mountains,  his  wife,  Shu  Shan  and  three  little 
ones  went  to  the  house  of  her  grandmother,  three  miles 
away  at  Yao  Shang,  but  his  mother  staid  with  Mrs. 
Ts'ao,  a  woman  who  often  worked  for  them.  Shu 
Shan's  mother  and  her  youngest  brother,  Te  Jui,  also 
took  refuge  at  Yao  Shang.  Her  aunt  was  so  terrified 
at  their  coming  that  she  ran  away  and  would  not  return 
while  they  were  there.  Her  fears  proved  to  have  been 
well  founded  ;  for  before  many  days  had  passed  a  crowd 
of  Boxers  surrounded  the  house  and  knelt  in  a  circle 
around  it,  crying,  "Kill!  burn!"  They  were  persuaded 
to  withdraw  that  time ;  for  none  of  the  members  of  the 
family  were  Christians,  and  it  was  not  known  cer- 
tainly that  they  were  harboring  any  of  their  Christian 
relatives.  But  the  experience  so  terrified  them  that 
they  were  unwilling  to  let  Shu  Shan  and  her  children 
stay  longer.  For  seventeen  days  they  had  given  them 
a  home ;  why  keep  them  longer  when  it  only  meant 


326      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

death  to  all  ?  It  was  a  despairing  woman  who  left  that 
door,  and  made  her  way  across  the  fields,  carrying  the 
heavy  fifteen-months'  old  baby,  sometimes  carrying, 
sometimes  leading  the  three-year-old  girl,  while  the 
eight-year-old  boy  walked  by  her  side.  Without  food, 
without  money,  without  a  roof  in  the  whole  world  to 
shelter  them,  her  woman's  instinct  turned  her  to  the 
spot  which  she  had  once  called  home.  She  knew  that 
for  a  week  fire  and  sword  had  reigned  supreme  in  Fu 
Ho ;  every  day  news  had  reached  her  of  new  victims  to 
Boxer  hate.  But  if  she  must  die,  let  it  be  there.  Be- 
fore leaving  her  grandmother's  she  had  proposed  to  her 
oldest  boy  that  he  hide  away  with  distant  relatives ;  "but 
the  boy  said,  ''No,  mother,  if  we  are  to  die,  let  us  all 
be  together.  I  am  not  afraid."  About  noon  the 
younger  children  fell  asleep.  They  were  about  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  from  home.  The  mother  was  faint  with 
heat  and  thirst,  and  her  eyes  were  so  swollen  with  days 
of  weeping  that  she  could  hardly  find  her  way.  She 
sank  down  exhausted  under  a  tree.  A  peddler  whom 
she  knew  passed  by  on  his  way  to  the  town.  'Tlease 
ask  my  aunt  to  come  and  bring  me  some  water,"  she 
gasped.  "Do  n't  ask  for  water,"  the  man  replied, 
"jump  into  the  river  yonder.  Your  mother-in-law  is 
dead.  The  Boxers  cut  her  to  pieces  yesterday.  They  '11 
kill  you  if  you  go  into  the  village."  "I  shall  go  home," 
she  said;  "if  they  kill  me,  let  it  be  at  our  own  home." 
The  peddler  carried  word  of  her  sad  plight  to  her 
aunt,  and  her  uncle  started  to  carry  water  to  her. 
The  Boxers  were  already  watching  her  from  a  dis- 
tance as  she  made  her  way  slowly  toward  her  home, 
and  they  stopped  the  man  who  was  going  to  her  re- 
lief. "If  you  give  her  water,  we  '11  kill  your  whole 
family."   The  mother  and  thr^e  children  were  all  weep- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OP  .MARTYRS      z^-j 

ing  as  they  drew  near  their  own  door,  several  Boxers 
following  them,  ant!  an  over-increasing  crowd.  As 
they  entered  their  gate  a  Boxer  rudely  pointed  to  a 
mangled  body.  "There  's  your  mother-in-law.  We 
killed  her  yesterday."  Shu  Shan  turned  to  them  with 
one  piteous  appeal:  *'If  you  kill  me,  kill  all  my  chil- 
dren. Do  n't  keep  them  alive  to  suffer  after  I  am 
gone." 

The  Boxers  were  as  sure  of  their  prey  as  a  cat  is  of 
a  mouse.  They  let  them  enter  the  house,  and  the  little 
girl,  weary  and  thirsty,  dropped  to  sleep  immediately. 
The  crowd  thronging  the  house  and  yard  grew  more 
rough,  and  some  one  kicked  the  little  girl  awake. 
"Don't  kill  that  child,"  said  the  Boxer  leader;  "she  is 
not  destined  to  die.  Whoever  wants  to  take  her  can 
have  her."  A  young  man  in  the  crowd  named  Ho 
came  and  picked  her  up.  Another  man  knelt  before 
the  leader  and  prayed  him  to  spare  the  life  of  the 
baby,  but  the  request  was  refused. 

There  was  no  sympathizing  friend  present  who 
could  tell  us  of  the  last  words  of  the  poor  young 
mother,  or  her  dying  prayer ;  but  we  knew  that  this  girl 
who  for  years  had  studied  in  the  Bridgman  School, 
and  who  knew  so  well  the  great  love  of  God,  must  have 
cast  herself  on  that  love  in  the  last  agony  of  her  mother- 
heart.  Dragging  her  out  of  the  house  to  a  tree  in  the 
yard,  they  held  her  as  she  stood,  her  baby  in  her  arms, 
and  saw  her  dear  boy  slowly  stabbed  to  death.  A 
cruel  spear  thrust  through  his  back,  then  as  he  ran 
screaming  round  and  round  the  tree,  one  after  another 
cut  at  him  with  swords  and  spears.  A  wild  thought 
came  into  the  mind  of  the  frenzied  mother  as  she 
clasped  her  doomed  baby  close  to  her  heart ;  perhaps 
she  could  save  him  from  that  slow  torment.    With  the 


2,2^      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

strength  of  a  maniac,  she  dashed  the  child  against  the 
tree,  kilHng  him  instantly.  The  Boxers  took  their 
revenge  by  slowly  doing  the  mother  to  death. 

After  many  days  had  passed,  and  flames  had  de- 
stroyed every  building  in  the  yard,  some  one  dug  a 
shallow  pit  a  few  feet  from  the  tree,  and  in  this  grave 
four  coffinless  bodies  found  a  resting-place.  The  winds, 
as  if  in  mockery,  strewed  it  with  scorched  leaves  from 
a  hymn-book,  and  near  it  lay  the  remains  of  one  of 
the  Christian  books  which  the  boy  had  studied. 

Eight  months  passed  by.  Then  a  young  man  with 
set,  white  face,  assisted  by  Christian  friends,  opened 
the  pit,  and  the  poor  remains  which  could  be  found 
of  mother,  wife,  and  sons,  were  placed  in  coffins.  In 
March,  when  memorial  services  were  held  for  the 
forty-two  Boxer  victims  in  Fu  Ho,  the  long  proces- 
sion following  the  coffins  to  the  cemetery  passed  this 
spot,  and  some  who  had  loved  those  whose  bodies  had 
moldered  in  that  shallow  pit  stood  for  a  moment  be- 
side it,  looking  down  through  fast-flowing  tears.  Then 
some  one  said  softly,  ''The  mortal  has  put  on  immor- 
tality, the  corruptible  has  put  on  incorruption." 

ts'ao  tso  UN     (Age,  eleven) 

My  father  was  a  teacher  in  the  North  China  Col- 
lege in  T'ungchou,  and  we  lived  in  a  house  close  by 
the  college,  father,  mother,  and  I.  My  two  sisters, 
the  oldest  of  whom  was  sixteen,  were  studying  in  a 
Presbyterian  school  in  Peking,  but  school  was  closed 
early  because  of  the  Boxer  trouble,  and  they  came 
home.  On  the  7th  of  June  we  heard  that  the  Boxers 
were  killing  Christians  only  a  few  miles  away,  and 
the  missionaries  warned  us  that  we  would  not  be  safe 
in  our  home,  as  they  were  going  to  flee  that  night  to 
Peking.     My  father's  old  home  was  at  Fu  Ho,  and 


'I's'ao  1\s()  Liu 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      329 

there  he  had  many  relatives,  none  of  whom  were  Chris- 
tians. IMy  mother's  brother,  named  Shih,  who  was 
also  a  teacher  in  T'ungchou,  was  a  deacon  in  the  Fu 
Ho  Church,  and  another  brother  and  other  members 
of  the  family  lived  there.  The  deacon's  wife  was  not  a 
Church  meml)cr,  but  their  only  child,  a  nine-year-old 
boy  named  Shih  Yuan,  had  studied  in  the  Christian 
school  at  Fu  Ho. 

My  father  and  mother  decided  to  flee  at  once  to  Fu 
Ho.  That  afternoon  the  five  members  of  our  family 
were  driven  in  an  open  cart  past  the  college  buildings 
and  the  homes  of  the  foreign  teachers,  then  through 
the  city  of  T'ungchou,  and  before  dark  were  at  the 
home  of  my  Uncle  Shih,  the  one  who  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian. When  we  told  him  our  trouble,  he  said,  '*It  is 
peaceful  here ;  you  may  live  with  us."  But  soon  the 
trouble  spread  to  Fu  Ho,  and  as  my  uncle's  family 
were  afraid  to  keep  us  we  went  to  the  home  of  my 
other  uncle,  the  deacon. 

For  three  days  we  lived  peacefully  here.  On  the 
i8th  of  June,  when  I  was  sleeping  a  little  after  noon,  I 
was  aroused  by  a  great  hubbub.  ''The  Boxers  are  kill- 
ing the  Ans!"  some  one  exclaimed.  Their  home  was 
the  next  but  one  to  ours.  As  we  ran  out  into  our  yard, 
flames  were  shooting  up  from  the  An  house,  and  piti- 
ful shrieks  of  ''Save!  save!"  rent  our  ears.  We  heard 
rifle-shots,  too.  "Do  n't  leave  a  dog  or  chicken  alive !" 
called  the  Boxers. 

We  barred  our  gate,  though  we  knew  that  would 
not  keep  the  Boxers  out,  and  surely  they  would  come 
for  us  next.  Father  and  Deacon  Shih  were  not  at 
home.  A  fine  rain  began  to  fall.  Mother,  my  two  sis- 
ters, and  I  stole  into  the  back  yard  and  crept  unob- 
served through  the  cornstalk  fence,  then  hastened 
through  the  town  to  a  little  village  close  by,  where  a 


330      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

friend  of  my  father's  lived.  How  glad  we  were  the 
next  day  when  my  father  joined  us  here! 

The  Boxers  had  said  that  they  were  going  to  kill 
the  Ans  because  the  members  of  the  family  who  were 
Christians  did  n't  live  in  our  town,  but  had  taken 
refuge  with  their  heathen  relatives  here  after  they  had 
been  driven  from  their  Peking  home  by  the  Boxers. 
The  Boxers  in  Fu  Ho  said  that  they  were  n't  going 
to  have  any  outsiders,  either  Christians  or  well-poison- 
ers or  blood-smearers,  bring  misfortune  on  our  town. 
So  they  killed  all  of  the  Ans,  even  those  who  were  not 
Christians,  leaving  just  one  heart-broken  old  lady. 
And  they  said  they  must  kill  Mr.  Kao,  the  preacher, 
and  my  deacon  uncle,  but  that  they  would  n't  kill  any 
one  else.  So  our  relatives  kept  saying  to  my  father  and 
uncle,  "Your  wives  are  not  Church  members ;  they  and 
the  children  will  be  safe  here  with  us.  But  you  can 
only  save  your  lives  by  running  away  and  hiding. 
Your  families  are  better  off  without  you,  and  so  are 
we  all."  So  my  father  and  uncle  had  started  on  their 
flight  before  the  attack  on  the  An  family.  They  walked 
over  thirty  miles,  until  they  were  completely  exhausted, 
and  then  decided  to  come  back  home.  My  father  was 
so  tired  that  he  could  only  walk  a  short  distance,  then 
he  would  lie  down  by  the  road  to  rest. 

When  my  father  found  us  that  day  at  his  friend's, 
he  took  us  to  his  own  brother's,  but  they  were  afraid  to 
keep  us  there  long;  so,  after  eating  a  meal,  we  went 
again  under  cover  of  darkness  back  to  my  father's 
friend.  My  uncle's  wife  and  son  were  there,  too,  and 
we  staid  hidden  av/ay.  The  next  day  my  uncle  came 
out,  and  was  seen  by  a  Boxer,  who  watched  to  see 
wheis  he  went.  His  brother  came  after  dark  and 
warned  him  that  there  was  a  plot  to  kill  us  all.  So 
my  aunt  and  my  cousin,  Shih  Yuan,  fled  at  once  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      331 

the  home  of  relatives  named  Ko,  a  few  miles  away ; 
my  uncle  ran  oft"  in  the  darkness  to  hide ;  my  father 
hid  in  some  low  land  to  the  north,  and  my  mother, 
with  us  three  children,  hurried  to  the  bank  of  a  river 
not  far  away.  A  little  before  midnight,  while  we  were 
crouching-  there,  we  heard  Boxers  hunting  for  my 
uncle  in  gardens  only  a  few  hundred  feet  away ;  but 
they  did  not  find  him.  Every  moment  we  expected 
they  would  search  the  river  bank.  My  mother  and  sis- 
ters found  a  small  boat,  and  sat  in  it,  while  I  hid 
in  a  crevice  in  the  bank  close  by.  We  did  not  dare 
say  a  word.  Suddenly  there  was  a  great  splash. 
My  oldest  sister  had  fallen  overboard  in  the  inky  dark- 
ness. There  was  no  one  to  save  her.  My  poor  mother 
comforted  herself  with  the  thought  that  this  dear 
daughter  would  suffer  no  tortue  or  insult  at  the  hands 
of  the  Boxers. 

Soon  the  night  grew  quiet.  The  Boxers  had  given 
up  their  search.  We  three  stole  through  the  darkness 
to  a  tiny  house  in  my  uncle  Ts'ao's  garden,  where  a 
watchman  sometimes  lodged.  It  was  not  far  from 
our  chapel  and  the  preacher's  home.  The  next  morn- 
ing we  saw  a  great  company  of  Boxers  going  from 
house  to  house  with  their  awful  cry,  "Kill!  kill!" 
Where  was  my  father?  Would  they  find  him?  They 
chased  a  man  and  a  little  boy  into  some  fields  near 
by.  Late  in  the  afternoon,  as  we  still  hid  in  the  lodge, 
some  one  came  and  told  us  that  my  father  had  just 
been  killed.  He  was  seen  by  Boxers  when  he  was 
trying  to  creep  unobserved  into  his  brother's  house  for 
a  drink  of  water.  Pursued  by  them,  he  waded  across 
the  river,  but  they  were  soon  upon  him,  and  with 
rough  hands  they  dragged  him  back  to  the  spot,  not  far 
from  our  lodge,  where  the  bodies  of  the  two  other 
martyrs  lay.     'Tray  to  your  God  to  save  you!"  thev 


ZZ2      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

cried,  as  they  set  upon  him  from  all  sides  with  swords 
and  spears. 

Just  before  dark,  Boxers  found  my  uncle  hiding  in 
a  clump  of  trees,  and  dragged  him,  with  old  Mr.  Chou, 
to  the  place  where  my  father's  body  lay.  "You  can 
kill  my  body,  but  you  can  not  hurt  my  soul,"  he  said 
with  a  brave  smile ;  and  as  the  death  blows  fell  on  him 
he  prayed,  'Xord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit." 

In  our  tiny  garden-lodge  my  broken-hearted  mother 
crouched  and  wrung  her  hands.  My  Uncle  Ts'ao  had 
come,  saying,  "The  Boxers  know  now  that  you  are 
here ;  they  will  come  and  kill  you  to-morrow.  You  had 
better  die  before  they  come,  and  not  let  them  have 
your  body  to  torture  and  hack  to  pieces,  like  those 
whom  they  have  killed  to-day."  After  dark  my  mother 
sent  me  to  this  uncle's  home.  When  I  awoke  the  next 
morning  my  mother  and  sister  lay  dying  from  opium- 
poisoningj  in  a  room  not  far  from  mine.  They  had 
come  to  my  uncle's  after  I  was  asleep,  and  he  had  given 
them  opium.  Before  their  bodies  were  cold  in  death 
they  were  taken  out  and  buried.  "If  the  Boxers  come 
and  find  a  breath  of  life  in  them  they  will  slice  them  to 
pieces,"  my  uncle  said.  They  did  not  let  me  go  to 
the  cemetery. 

My  aunt,  the  deacon's  wife,  was  killed  about  ten 
days  later  at  the  Ko  home  where  she  had  taken  refuge, 
but  my  cousin  Shih  Yuan,  hid  in  a  neighbor's  house 
and  escaped.  He  spent  the  rest  of  the  summer  with 
the  Ko  family. 

The  Christians  were  all  gone  now;  just  a  few  or- 
phan children  were  left.  I  heard  my  Uncle  Ts'ao  plead- 
ing with  the  Boxers  for  my  Hfe,  "He  is  the  only  one 
left,  and  he  is  such  a  little  fellow.  He  '11  not  take  venge- 
ance on  you."  I  had  many  wealthy  relatives  in  the 
village,  some  of  whom  had  joined  the  Boxers,  so  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      333 

Boxers  promised  not  to  kill  nic.  But  it  seemed  to  me 
I  would  be  so  much  happier  if  I  could  join  my  loved 
ones  in  heaven.  The  next  night  after  they  died  1  had 
such  a  beautiful  dream  about  them.  I  saw  my  father, 
mother,  and  two  sisters  in  white  robes,  with  a  flood 
of  glory  about  them  and  a  great  throng  of  angels  close 
by.  Two  or  three  times  this  vision  came  to  me,  and 
comforted  me. 

For  a  few  days  I  lived  with  my  Uncle  Ts'ao,  work- 
ing in  the  field  for  him.  I  was  very  hungry  and  tired ; 
for  my  uncle  gave  me  only  a  little  food,  and  made  mc 
work  hard  all  day.  I  had  never  worked  before,  and 
the  sun  seemed  so  very,  very  hot.  Uncle  Ts'ao  had 
taken  away  all  of  my  shoes  and  stockings,  and  my 
tender  feet  were  stabbed  and  bleeding  from  the  dry 
grainstalks.  He  often  taunted  me,  saying,  'AVhat 
made  you  all  follow  the  foreigners?  Father,  mother, 
sisters,  uncle,  all  are  dead.  It  is  their  punishment." 
When  I  knelt  down  to  pray  my  uncle  would  roar  out, 
"Why  are  you  kneeling  down  ?"  I  would  not  answer 
him,  but  when  I  got  up  he  would  ask  again,  'AVhat 
are  you  doing?"  ''Praying  to  God,"  I  said.  *'Why?" 
"Because  God  is  true,  and  the  Buddhas  and  idols  are 
all  false."  But  I  did  not  tell  him  how  peace  came  into 
my  heart  when  I  prayed.  I  used  to  thank  God  for  sav- 
ing my  life,  and  ask  him  to  help  me,  and  I  prayed  that 
he  would  let  my  father  and  mother  and  sisters  go  hand 
in  hand  into  heaven. 

I  got  so  hungry  at  this  uncle's  that,  after  the  first 
few  days,  I  used  to  go  to  my  Uncle  Shih's  house  to  eat ; 
but  I  still  worked  in  my  Uncle  Ts'cto's  fields.  Uncle 
Shih,  though  not  a  Christian,  was  always  kind  to  me. 

I  knew  that  the  T'ungchou  missionaries  and  many 
other  foreigners  and  Christians  had  fled  into  the  Brit- 
ish Legation  in  Peking,    Every  day  we  could  hear  the 


334      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

sound  of  the  cannonading.  People  kept  saying  that  the 
legations  had  been  taken,  and  every  one  killed.  Then 
August  came.  Fleeing  soldiers  reported  that  a  great 
army  was  coming  up  from  Tientsin,  slaughtering  men, 
women,  and  children  by  the  way.  Soon  we  heard  their 
cannon  bombarding  T'ungchou,  only  four  miles  south 
of  us.  I  hid  in  my  uncle's  garden,  and  did  n't  feel 
afraid.  A  week  or  ten  days  later,  when  I  was  working 
in  the  field,  I  saw  about  three  hundred  French  soldiers 
come  to  Fu  Ho.  I  crouched  down  in  the  garden,  and 
saw  them  go  from  house  to  house,  taking  everything 
they  wanted.  They  took  all  of  the  rice  and  flour  at 
my  uncle's.  All  that  day  I  did  n't  dare  to  go  home,  so 
I  had  nothing  to  eat  until  dark. 

About  the  ist  of  September  the  Fu  Ho  Boxers 
began  to  say:  "There  are  two  or  three  of  these  older 
children  whom  we  have  allowed  to  live,  who  will  tell 
the  foreigners  about  us  and  have  us  punished.  We 
must  kill  all  except  the  very  little  ones."  I  soon  heard 
that  they  had  killed  a  Christian  boy  seventeen  years 
old.  I  had  an  uncle  who  was  a  Boxer.  He  used  to 
say  that  whenever  he  looked  at  me  his  whole  body 
felt  cold,  and  he  could  certainly  see  a  cross  on  my  fore- 
head. Another  day  he  said,  "When  I  stand  a  little  way 
off  and  look  at  you,  I  can  see  smoke  coming  out  of 
your  head."  Once  he  stood  in  front  of  me  for  a  while 
with  a  sword  in  his  hand,  repeating  stories  like  these; 
then  said,  "You  have  been  baptized;  if  we  don't  kill 
you,  you  will  kill  us."  Several  people  came  up  then 
and  begged  for  my  life. 

I  had  heard  that  all  of  the  missionaries  and  many 
of  the  Christians  were  alive  in  Peking.  Then  my  Uncle 
Shih  brought  the  good  news  that  Mr.  Kao,  our 
preacher,  was  alive,  "and  in  October  they  are  coming 
here  to  get  you  and  the  other  orphan  children,  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      335 

take  you  to  Peking."  My  uncle  was  glad  of  this,  for 
I  was  very  thin  from  hard  work  and  lack  of  food  and 
grieving  for  my  friends.  "You  '11  not  suffer  any  more," 
he  said.  At  first  my  Uncle  Ts'ao  did  not  believe  this 
news.  But  ten  days  later  Mr.  Tewksbury,  Mr.  Kao, 
and  others,  with  some  American  soldiers,  came  for  us, 
and  after  spending  one  night  in  T'ungchou,  we  were 
taken  to  Peking. 

After  I  reached  Peking  I  went  with  Mr.  Kao  to 
the  place  near  the  Presbyterian  mission,  where  my 
grandparents  used  to  live.  The  house  had  been  com- 
pletely destroyed,  and  my  grandparents  had  been  killed. 

MARTHA 

Martha  was  the  oldest  daughter  of  the  Mrs.  Keng, 
the  story  of  whose  martyrdom  is  told  in  Chapter  IV. 
For  many  years  she  was  a  student  in  the  Bridgman 
School ;  but  over  a  year  before  the  Boxer  massacre  she 
married  a  nephew  of  Deacon  Shih,  of  Fu  Ho.  The 
young  husband  was  a  Christian,  and  was  proud  of  his 
gentle  educated  wife. 

Their  baby  was  not  a  month  old  when  they  left 
their  home  in  Peking  and  sought  refuge  from  the  Box- 
ers with  non-Christian  relatives  in  Fu  Ho.  During 
those  days  of  slaughter  which  have  been  described  in 
the  preceding  narrative,  they  crouched  in  a  cemetery, 
Martha  with  her  precious  baby  clasped  in  her  arms. 
That  most  terrible  day  of  all  she  was  alone  among  the 
graves,  and  saw  the  Boxers  pursuing  more  than  one 
Christian  with  their  swords,  while  all  day  long  the  cry, 
"Kill !"  rang  in  her  ears.  After  dark  she  crept  into  the 
deserted  house  of  the  martyred  deacon.  There  she 
spent  four  lonely  days,  hungry,  anxious-hearted  for 
her  husband,  taking  fast  hold  on  God  when  she  heard 
the  bands  of  murderers  hunting  and  burning  all  about 


S36      CHINA'S  BOOK  OI^  MARTYRS 

her.  There  she  received  the  tidings  which  she  dreaded ; 
her  baby  was  fatherless.  A  relative  took  pity  on  her, 
and  hid  her  away  in  a  retired  room  in  his  house,  only 
an  hour  before  the  Boxers  came  to  burn  the  deacon's 
house.  For  a  month  she  was  concealed  there.  Then 
her  father  came  and  took  her  to  T'ungchou  to  care  for 
her  motherless  brother  and  sister.  He  was  not  a  Chris- 
tian, and  the  Boxers  thought  that  they  had  exter- 
minated all  of  the  "erh  mao-tzu"  in  T'ungchou,  so  this 
little  company  was  not  hunted  down  in  the  retired  spot 
where  they  found  refuge. 

Then  came  a  day  when,  instead  of  Boxers,  Russians 
and  Japanese  killed  and  ravaged  on  the  streets  of 
T'ungchou.  Martha  must  flee  again ;  so,  on  the  14th 
of  August,  Mr.  Keng  led  the  little  company  through 
the  streets  of  T'ungchou.  A  darkfaced  Sikh  started 
to  lay  hands  on  Martha ;  but  her  father  seized  the  burly 
fellow,  and  held  him  until  she  passed.  They  saw  lying 
on  the  street  the  bodies  of  a  mother  and  daughter  who 
had  taken  opium  to  end  their  shame  and  suffering. 
Crowds  of  refugees  were  streaming  out  of  the  city. 

Mr.  Keng  left  Martha,  Anna,  and  his  little  boy 
with  the  Shih  family  at  Fu  Ho.  Whenever  the  alarm 
was  given  that  foreign  soldiers  were  coming  on  a  raid, 
they  would  all  run  to  hide  in  the  tall  grain.  Soon  a 
French  garrison  was  stationed  in  Fu  Ho.  No  woman 
was  safe  there  now,  and  Martha  with  her  baby  and  the 
two  children  began  a  life  of  wandering  from  village 
to  village.  Weeks  of  hunger  and  weariness  passed. 
They  gathered  cornstalks  and  other  fuel  to  sell,  but 
it  was  not  enough  to  provide  food  and  shelter.  Then 
the  weather  grew  cold ;  their  garments  were  thin  and 
ragged.     The  little  baby  became  a  mere  skeleton. 

During  these  months  Martha's  father  could  find  no 
trace  of  the  refugees.    At  last  he  found  them,  and  what 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      2>2>7 

was  the  good  news  he  brought?  Missionaries  were 
still  living  in  Peking.  The  next  day  Martha  was  with 
them,  and  there  was  milk  for  the  starving  baby,  and 
love  for  the  little  mother,  who  sobbed  out  the  repressed 
sorrow  of  months.  For  weeks  the  baby's  life  hung  in 
the  balance ;  but  now  the  sparkle  has  come  back  to  his 
eyes,  and  he  is  the  joy  and  comfort  of  Martha's  heart, 
receiving  a  double  portion  of  love  for  the  sake  of  his 
martyred  father. 

Martha,  when  she  told  her  story,  closed  with  the 
words,  "Baby  and  I  would  soon  have  died  but  for 
God's  lovingkindness." 

AN  ORPHAN  girl's  STORY 

[Li  Shu  Ch'eng,  whose  story  is  given  below,  is  a 
daughter  of  the  evangelist,  Li  Te  Kuei,  whose  martyr- 
dom is  recorded  in  the  chapter  entitled  "The  Faithful 
Unto  Death."  She  was  eleven  years  old  at  the  time 
of  the  trouble.  She  was  also  a  niece  of  Kao  Hsin, 
whose  story  has  been  given  in  this  chapter.] 

In  the  spring  of  1900  I  was  studying  in  the  Bridg- 
man  School  in  Peking.  My  sister,  Shu  Ch'uan,  sixteen 
years  old,  and  my  cousin,  Shu  Chi,  the  same  age  as  I, 
were  studying  there,  too,  and  we  were  very  happy 
until  the  school  was  broken  up  by  the  Boxer  trouble. 
On  the  7th  of  June  Shu  Chi's  father  came  to  take  all 
three  of  us  to  his  home  in  the  village  of  Ts'ao  Fang, 
a  few  miles  northwest  of  T'ungchou. 

As  we  jolted  along  in  a  cart  that  Thursday,  wc 
little  thought  that  our  pleasant  home  in  Yung  Le  Tien, 
eighteen  miles  from  T'ungchou  was  already  a  heap  of 
ashes,  and  that  father,  mother,  and  three  little  broth- 
ers were  lying  by  the  roadside  three  or  four  miles 
from  the  town,  cut  down  by  Boxer  knives  when  they 
22 


SsS      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

were  trying  to  escape.  We  had  hardly  got  inside  Uncle 
Li's  house  before  the  yard  and  the  street  outside  were 
swarming  with  wicked  men,  who  kept  shouting  that 
they  wanted  those  three  schoolgirls.  We  hid  in  the 
house,  and  my  uncle  paid  the  men  some  money  to  get 
them  to  go  away.  But  they  did  not  all  go,  and  we 
were  too  frightened  to  sleep  at  all  that  night. 

Before  morning  dawned,  all  of  our  missionary 
friends  in  T'ungchou  had  fled  to  Peking.  Wicked  peo- 
ple kept  coming  to  our  house  all  that  day  and  making 
threats.  They  called  us  "erh  mao-tzu,"  and  kept  say- 
ing that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  we  would 
be  killed.  We  knew  that  we  could  save  our  lives  only 
by  running  away  and  hiding,  so  that  day  we  made  our 
plans.  My  Grandmother  Li  refused  to  go  away.  "If 
the  Boxers  come,"  she  said,  "they  will  find  me  here  in 
my  own  home,  and  I  shall  soon  be  in  heaven." 

For  weeks  heathen  relatives  and  neighbors  had  been 
trying  to  persuade  her  to  give  up  her  religion  and  burn 
incense  to  idols,  promising  that  the  Boxers  should  not 
kill  her  if  she  did  so.  But  my  grandmother  would  not 
listen  to  them.  I  think  this  is  more  remarkable  because 
she  had  been  a  Christian  only  a  few  years. 

My  uncle  decided  to  take  my  sister  back  to  Peking, 
and  leave  her  with  the  missionaries;  so,  after  one  day 
at  home,  she  left  in  the  darkness.  That  same  night  my 
aunt  took  her  baby,  Shu  Chi,  and  myself  to  her  own 
mother's  home,  about  three  miles  away.  The  people 
here  were  not  Christians,  and  we  hoped  that  if  we  hid 
in  the  house  the  Boxers  would  not  know  we  were  there. 
But  the  next  day  we  heard  how  the  Boxers  were  gath- 
ering from  every  side.  For  two  nights  we  had  seen 
the  sky  all  aglow  with  the  flames  of  the  college  build- 
ings and  church  and  missionary  homes  in  T'ungchou, 
which  the  Boxers  and  Chinese  soldiers  were  burning. 


'J. 


r 


'J. 

c 

r. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      339 

So  we  decided  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  Eastern  Moun- 
tains, whose  sharp  outHncs  we  could  see  against  the 
sky  about  forty  miles  away.  My  aunt  had  left  one 
little  daucfhter  four  years  old  with  Grandmother  Li.  So 
under  cover  of  darkness  we  went  back  home  to  get  her, 
baked  a  few  flat  flour  cakes  to  eat  on  our  journey, 
and  started  on  our  flight.  My  grandmother  still  re- 
fused to  go  with  us.  Our  party  was  made  up  of  my 
uncle,  aunt,  three  cousins,  my  aunt's  brother,  and  a 
Christian  neighbor,  Mr.  Lii.  When  we  had  walked 
about  a  mile,  my  oldest  cousin,  Shu  Chi,  decided  to 
go  back  and  stay  with  her  grandmother,  and  two  other 
Christians  who  remained  in  Ts'ao  Fang.  We  walked  on 
two  nights  and  days  without  sleep,  and  the  third  night 
reached  the  town  of  P'ing  Ku,  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tains, where  one  of  our  Christian  deacons  lived.  We  had 
hoped  that  in  this  remote  mountain  town  we  would  be 
safe  from  Boxers;  but  they  already  had  their  altar 
there,  and  the  deacon's  family  had  fled  into  the  moun- 
tains. Worn  out  with  our  long  journey  and  with  hun- 
ger, we  concealed  ourselves  that  night  behind  a  temple. 

The  next  day  my  aunt's  brother  and  Mrs.  Li  started 
back,  and  I  went  with  them,  not  knowing  yet  that  my 
father  and  mother  were  dead,  but  supposing  that  they 
had  taken  refuge  with  many  other  T'ungchou  Chris- 
tians in  Peking.  One  day  as  we  approached  a  village, 
suddenly  we  saw  thirty  or  forty  Boxers  armed  with 
knives  and  guns,  their  heads  wound  about  with  red 
cloth,  and  wearing  red  girdles.  They  were  occupied 
with  their  strange  rites,  and  we  slipped  around  an- 
other way  before  I  hey  caught  sight  of  us.  So  I  got 
back  safely  to  Grandmother  Li's. 

Just  twelve  days  after  we  three  girls  came  down 
from  Peking,  the  long-expected  danger  came.  Shu 
Chi  and  I  were  getting  ready  to  go  to  bed.    I  had  taken 


340      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

off  my  shoes,  and  Shu  Chi  had  her  stockings  off,  when 
suddenly  the  room  echoed  with  the  wild  cry,  "Kill! 
kill !  kill  the  erh  mao-tzu !"  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  one 
of  the  Boxers  standing  on  a  mound  just  outside  our 
yard,  and  scores  were  calling  out  that  savage  ''Kill!" 
**Run  for  your  lives,"  said  grandmother.  We  two  girls 
slipped  away  in  the  dim  light,  running  toward  the 
south.  Looking  back  we  saw  the  flames  rising  from 
our  house,  and  the  cry,  "Kill !  kill !  do  n't  let  even  a  cat 
or  chicken  escape!"  was  ringing  in  our  ears.  Our 
grandmother  lay  stabbed  to  death  under  the  elm-tree 
in  the  yard,  and  five  others  were  murdered  in  that  vil- 
lage. Though  we  did  not  know  this  as  we  ran  on  in 
the  darkness,  we  had  little  hope  that  the  Boxers  would 
spare  our  dear  old  grandmother. 

As  we  drew  near  the  great  paved  road  leading 
from  T'ungchou  to  Peking,  we  came  upon  a  rough 
crowd  of  men  and  boys  who  were  not  dressed  as  Box- 
ers, but  who  ran  after  us  as  soon  as  they  spied  us 
through  the  darkness,  crying,  "Erh  mao-tzu !  erh  mao- 
tzu!"  Soon  we  were  surrounded.  "Kill  them!"  called 
one  loud  voice.  "No,"  said  another;  "you  sec  they 
have  just  escaped  from  the  Ts'ao  Fang  Boxers.  It 
must  be  the  will  of  heaven  that  they  should  live." 

Their  coarse,  jeering  faces  were  close  to  ours. 
"She  is  surely  an  erh  mao-tzu,"  they  said,  pointing  to 
my  cousin.  "See  how  big  and  round  her  eyes  arc, 
and  they  have  a  yellowish  tinge,  just  like  those  of  the 
foreign  devils.     But  this  other  girl  doesn't  look  like 


one." 


For  some  reason  I  did  n't  feel  a  bit  afraid  that  night. 
I  spoke  right  up  and  said,  "I  am  just  the  same  as  she; 
we  just  came  home  from  a  boarding-school  in  Peking 
a  few  days  ago."  "You  are  a  Christian?"  "Yes,"  I 
replied. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      341 

While  they  were  mocking  and  threatening  us  a  man 
who  looked  like  a  soldier  came  by  on  horseback,  fol- 
lowed by  a  lame  man.  "What  are  you  doing  with 
those  girls?"  he  called  out,  sternly.  The  crowd  shrank 
back  abashed,  and  we  slipi)ed  away  again  into  the 
night. 

There  had  been  a  heavy  rain  the  day  before,  and 
the  country  we  were  wandering  through  was  full  of 
ditches  and  reed-bearing  flats.  Through  these  we 
waded  in  the  darkness,  now  bound  for  the  village  of 
Fu  Ho,  where  my  Uncle  Kao  and  other  relatives  lived. 
We  did  not  dare  go  by  the  road,  and  we  avoided  all 
villages,  lying  down  in  the  wet  fields  when  we  were 
too  tired  to  stand  any  longer.  To  get  to  Fu  Ho  we 
had  to  cross  a  river,  and  not  daring  to  go  to  the  regu- 
lar ferry,  we  wandered  up  the  bank  to  a  point  nearly 
opposite  the  village.  As  we  were  walking  along  this 
river  in  the  early  morning,  we  were  startled  by  see- 
ing the  dead  body  of  a  girl  of  sixteen,  whom  we  rec- 
ognized as  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  teachers  in  the 
college  at  T'ungchou.  We  walked  on  until  we  saw  a 
man  in  a  little  boat,  and  called  to  him  to  take  us  across 
the  river.  He  refused  until  we  gave  him  a  few  cents, 
all  the  money  we  had ;  then  he  came  and  rowed  us  over. 

The  Christians  in  Fu  Ho  had  all  been  killed  or  scat- 
tered, and  the  smoke  was  rising  from  some  of  their 
burning  homes  when  we  went  into  the  village.  We 
found  the  homes  of  my  cousin's  great  aunt,  and  of 
my  father's  oldest  sister,  neither  of  whom  was  a  Chris- 
tian. Here  I  first  heard  of  the  death  of  my  father, 
mother,  and  little  brothers.  My  Uncle  Kao,  who  was 
my  mother's  only  brother,  and  my  brother,  Li  Jui,  had 
fled,  they  knew  not  whither;  my  mother's  old  mother 
and  many  other  relatives  were  among  the  martyrs.  My 
father's   youngest   sister   had   been   stoned   almost  to 


342      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

death  that  very  day,  but  was  still  living  in  a  little  lodge 
in  a  garden.  It  was  rumored  also  that  all  of  the  mis- 
sionaries and  Christians  in  Peking  had  been  massacred. 
Was  my  dear  sister  gone,  too?  O,  it  seemed  that  day 
as  if  I  had  not  a  friend  left  on  earth,  and  I  think  my 
heart  would  have  broken  if  Jesus  had  not  comforted 
me !  All  that  day,  when  we  reached  Fu  Ho,  bands  of 
Boxers  were  searching  from  house  to  house  for  Chris- 
tians who  had  escaped  them.  Late  in  the  afternoon,  as 
Shu  Chi  and  I  crouched  for  concealment  in  a  cemetery, 
we  saw  them  chasing  Teacher  Ts'ao,  the  father  of  the 
girl  whose  body  we  had  seen  on  the  river  bank  that 
morning. 

We  heard  that  Shu  Chi's  father  had  left  his  wife  and 
baby  and  the  little  four-year-old  girl  begging  their 
way  in  the  mountains,  and  had  turned  back  to  try  to 
save  his  old  mother.  A  day  or  two  after  we  reached 
Fu  Ho,  Shu  Chi  and  I  walked  toward  T'ungchou, 
hoping  to  get  some  trace  of  him,  and,  strange  to  say, 
we  met  him  in  a  lonely  spot  by  the  river.  He  told 
us  of  all  the  horrors  which  he  had  passed  through^,  and 
the  terrible  sights  which  he  had  seen.*  Then  he  said : 
**Girls,  we  had  better  jump  into  the  river  and  die  peace- 
fully together.  There  is  no  hope  of  escape,  and  I  can 
not  bear  to  have  the  Boxers  torture  you."  ''No,  uncle," 
I  said,  "that  would  be  wicked,  and  Jesus  would  n't  save 
us.  It  is  better  to  let  the  Boxers  kill  us.  The  suffer- 
ing will  be  over  soon,  and  then  we  shall  be  in  heaven." 

Of  course,  my  uncle  did  not  dare  to  stay  in  this 
region  where  he  was  so  well  known,  so  he  went  ofif 
again  in  the  night,  leaving  us  with  our  great-aunt. 
The  Boxers  were  not  only  killing  Christians,  but  whole 
families  of  those  who  sheltered  or  fed  them.  But  our 
great-aunt  said:   "I  am  a  lonely  old  widow,  and  have 

*  See  lyi  Ch'ao  Kuei,  page  221 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      343 

oniy  a  few  years  to  live  anyway.  I  will  do  what  I  can 
for  the  children."  Still  she  was  afraid  to  have  us  stay 
in  the  house,  and  we  lived  most  of  the  time  in  a  cem- 
etery, hiding;  amond  the  moundlike  graves.  There  the 
rain  beat  down  upon  us,  and  the  darkness  closed  in 
about  us  night  after  night.  Once  in  two  or  three  days 
some  one  would  bring  us  a  little  food ;  but  we  were 
too  frightened  to  be  hungry.  Often  we  heard  the  Box- 
ers going  about  with  that  now  familiar  cry,  "Kill !  kill ! 
kill !" 

One  day  Shu  Chi  ventured  into  the  village,  and  was 
caught  by  the  Boxers,  who  carried  her  to  the  temple 
where  many  people  had  been  killed,  nearly  the  whole 
village  gathering  to  watch  the  trial.  They  bound  her 
hands  with  a  rope,  and,  after  forcing  her  to  kneel  be- 
fore the  altar,  they  asked  her  whether  she  was  a  Chris- 
tian. *'I  am  not  a  Church  member,"  she  said,  "I  have 
never  been  baptized."  This  was  true ;  but  I  am  sorry 
that  my  cousin  did  not  have  the  courage  to  confess  that 
she  believed  in  Jesus.  Still  I  can't  blame  her  very 
much.  She  had  not  loved  Jesus  from  babyhood,  as  I 
had,  and  those  great,  bloodstained  knives  looked  very 
cruel  to  the  little  eleven-year-old  girl.  Either  because 
they  pitied  the  sobbing  child,  or  because  they  pretended 
not  to  see  the  signs  that  she  was  a  Christian,  they  let 
her  go.  O,  how  glad  I  was  when  she  came  back  to  me 
in  that  lonely  cemetery  ! 

It  grew  more  dangerous  every  day  for  us  to  stay 
near  this  village.  Any  one  who  might  happen  to  see 
us  would  suspect  that  we  were  Christians,  because  our 
feet  had  never  been  bound  up  and  cramped  like  those 
of  other  girls.  It  began  to  be  whispered  about  that 
we  were  concealed  in  the  village,  and  our  relatives  be- 
came more  frightened.  My  own  aunt  really  pitied  us ; 
but  her  husband  hated  us,  and  threatened  that  if  she 


344      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

ever  gave  us  anything  to  eat  he  would  starve  her  to 
death.  Then  they  planned  how  they  could  keep  us 
from  being  tortured  to  death  and  save  themselves  from 
danger.  One  day  they  baked  us  some  cakes  mixed  with 
arsenic,  and  tried  to  make  us  eat  them;  and  another 
time  they  tried  to  lead  us  to  the  river,  hoping  we  would 
drown  ourselves.  But  we  answered  them  each  time 
just  as  we  did  my  uncle.  Then  they  got  rid  of  us  in 
another  way.  They  went  to  other  villages  and  per- 
suaded some  people  whom  they  knew  to  take  us  into 
their  families.  Those  who  promised  me  a  home  were 
Mohammedans,  living  a  mile  or  two  from  T'ungchou. 
None  of  the  Mohammedans  joined  the  Boxers,  neither 
did  the  Boxers  persecute  them,  so  they  thought  I  would 
be  safe  there.  They  came  for  me  at  night  with  a  cart, 
and  hid  me  in  a  great  basket,  so  that  it  looked  as  if 
they  were  hauling  grain  or  something  of  that  kind. 
My  cousin  was  taken  to  another  village  seven  miles 
away. 

I  lived  several  weeks  with  this  family.  They  used 
to  scold  and  beat  me,  but  the  Boxers  did  not  find  me. 
Then,  one  day  in  August,  we  heard  that  a  great  foreign 
army  was  approaching  from  Tientsin.  Frightened 
refugees  told  how  they  had  seen  helpless  women  and 
children  shot  down  by  the  terrible  Russians,  and  we  all 
fled  across  the  river,  going  toward  the  Eastern  Moun- 
tains. Before  we  had  gone  far  those  Mohammedans 
deserted  me,  and  a  family  in  a  little  village  took  pity 
on  the  frightened  child  wandering  in  the  streets,  and 
offered  me  shelter. 

One  day,  early  in  October,  who  do  you  think 
searched  me  out  in  that  lonely  village?  It  was  my 
brother,  Li  Jui.  He  had  fled  with  Uncle  Kao  be- 
yond the  Great  Wall  into  Mongolia.  He  took  me  to 
T'ungchou,  where  I  saw  one  of  our  missionaries  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      345 

several  of  our  Christians  who  had  come  down  from 
Peking.  The  next  day  my  Uncle  Kao  brought  Shu 
Chi  and  several  orphan  children  from  Fu  IIo.  On  the 
nth  of  October  we  drove  into  the  great  yard  in 
Peking,  where  over  two  hundred  T'ungchou  Chris- 
tians were  living  under  the  protection  of  the  mission- 
aries. The  days  of  my  wandering  and  danger  were 
over. 

One  of  the  missionary  ladies  took  me  immediately 
to  see  my  sister,  who  was  living  with  the  other  Bridg- 
n.an  School  girls  in  another  part  of  the  city.  As  soon 
as  1  looked  into  Shu  Ch'uan's  face,  and  felt  her  arms 
about  me.  I  just  broke  out  into  wild  sobs,  and  all  the 
other  girls  cried,  too. 

I  am  studying  in  the  Bridgman  School  now,  and 
my  sister  seems  like  a  mother  to  me.  So  do  my  mis- 
sionary teachers.  I  think  they  love  me  for  my  father's 
sake. 

The  three  following  paragraphs  are  given  to  show^ 
how  the  virulent  hatred  of  the  Boxers  extended  to  all 
who  had  the  slightest  connection  with  foreigners.  Hun- 
dreds who  had  made  no  profession  of  Christianity, 
but  who  had  associated  with  foreigners  as  servants, 
pupils,  teachers,  secretaries,  or  friends,  were  slain. 
The  highest  official  in  T'ungchou,  a  Tao-tai,  was  called 
"erh  mao-tzu"  because  of  his  friendly  intercourse  with 
the  foreigners  and  his  strenuous  efforts  to  protect  them. 
For  days  he  was  a  prisoner  in  his  own  yamen,  his  life 
in  hourly  danger,  and  only  after  paying  a  heavy  ran- 
som did  he  succeed  in  escaping  to  Shanghai. 

WEN  LAO  YEH 

Wen  Lao  Yeh  had  the  rank  of  Chih  Hsien  (fifth 
rank),  and  his  father  was  an  official  of  the  second  rank. 


346      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

They  are  an  old  aristocratic  family.  Wen  Lao  Yeh 
learned  something  of  Christianity  in  Central  China. 
His  story  is  told  by  his  son : 

"My  father  and  grandfather,  when  traveling  to  take 
up  the  duties  of  office,  visited  a  university  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Kiangsu.  My  father  was  a  good  mathematician, 
especially  in  algebra.  In  1898,  when  a  university  was 
started  in  Peking,  my  father  entered  as  a  student. 
At  that  time  the  reform  edicts  of  the  emperor  com- 
manded that  schools  and  universities  be  started  in  every 
city  and  village.  So  my  father  wished  to  establish  a 
school  in  T'ungchou,  that  the  youth  of  the  city  might 
be  enlightened  and  their  abilities  devoloped.  Before 
this  school  was  opened  the  coup  d'etat  occurred.  In 
spite  of  this  revolution,  my  father's  purpose  was  not 
changed.  So  he  subscribed  much  money  and  bought 
land  in  T'ungchou,  then  erected  buildings,  and  started 
a  school,  called  'The  English  and  Mathematical  Col- 
lege.' He  invited  teachers  of  English  and  Chinese, 
and  gathered  together  many  students. 

"Although  my  father  started  this  school,  no  one 
in  T'ungchou  favored  it,  but  on  the  contrary  he  was 
bitterly  persecuted.  So  my  father  reported  this  to  the 
missionaries  of  the  Congregational  Church,  and  often 
conferred  with  them  about  it.  They  exhorted  him 
not  to  fear,  but  to  go  on  and  open  the  school.  They 
also  gave  him  many  religious  books,  and  translations 
of  Western  books.  So  my  father  read  these  books,  and 
learned  of  the  affairs  of  ancient  times,  and  of  the  might 
of  God.  He  carefully  examined  Christian  truth,  and 
sent  me  to  the  Methodist  University  in  Peking  to  study. 
His  relatives  and  friends  all  thought  him  either  foolish 
or  demented ;  so  some  exhorted  him,  and  tried  to  pre- 
vent his  doing  this,  and  others  persecuted  and  ridi- 
culed him.     But  my  father  still  studied  the  Bible  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      347 

drew  close  to  the  Church.  Thus  he  knew  that  the  Lord 
would  surely  help  and  protect  us. 

"In  June,  1900,  the  Boxers  came  to  destroy  this 
school  and  our  home  which  adjoined  it.  My  father  fled 
to  Peking ;  my  mother,  surrounded  by  friends  and 
servants,  escaped  by  a  side  door  and  took  refuge  in 
her  mother's  home.  But  some  members  of  her  family 
were  Boxers,  so  she  received  bitter  persecution,  and 
was  finally  driven  away  and  joined  my  father  in  Peking. 

"At  the  close  of  school  I  had  been  invited  by  a 
schoolmate  to  Tsun  Hua.  While  there  I  heard  that 
the  T'ungchou  mission  had  been  destroyed,  also  my 
own  home.  So  I  was  very  anxious  and  returned  at 
once.  Finding  my  father's  mother  I  learned  that  my 
parents  were  in  Peking,  and  grandmother  said,  "You 
must  take  refuge  there  at  once ;  there  's  no  safety  for 
your  life  here."  So  that  same  day,  June  13th,  I  went 
to  Peking,  and  found  my  parents  at  the  place  to  which 
my  grandmother  had  directed  me.  When  we  met  we 
were  both  glad  and  fearful.  That  was  an  awful  day 
in  Peking.  After  that,  we  hid  in  three  different  places, 
and  suffered  great  trials,  until  August,  when  the  allies 
entered  Peking,  and  the  T'ungchou  missionaries  gave 
us  shelter  with  the  Christians. 

"My  fourteen-year-old  sister  had  remained  with 
her  grandmother  in  T'ungchou ;  but  after  the  foreign 
soldiers  came,  having  suffered  much  from  fright  and 
from  longing  for  her  parents,  she  had  an  attack  of 
fever  and  died. 

"When  men  pass  through  such  terrible  distress  and 
still  live,  surely  this  must  be  the  might  and  protection 
of  God.  So  my  father  drew  still  closer  to  God,  and 
studied  his  Bible.  He  wished  to  be  baptized,  and  to 
be  a  servant  of  Jesus.  Unexpectedly  he  became  ill, 
and  grew  rapidly  worse.     Though  we  consulted  phy- 


348      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

sicians,  he  died  in  November.    Alas !  that  after  passing 
through  such  dangers,  he  should  die  of  sickness." 

To  this  story,  given  by  Wen  Yii  Lin,  v^e  add  a  few 
details.  Mr.  Wen's  first  flight  to  Peking  was  a  series 
of  providential  escapes.  Boxers  were  on  his  track; 
but  at  the  time  when  they  overtook  him  he  happened 
to  be  off  the  cart  which  he  had  hired  for  the  journey. 
He  saw  them  rush  upon  the  cart,  and,  furious  with  rage, 
cut  to  pieces  both  the  carter  and  the  mule  which  had 
drawn  the  "erh  mao-tzu."  The  highway  was  thronged. 
Mr.  Wen  happened  to  be  close  by  a  cart  which  was 
loaded  with  a  quantity  of  money  belonging  to  one  of 
Tung  Fu  Hsiang's  soldiers.  ** Please  ride  on  this  cart 
and  protect  my  property,"  said  the  soldier  to  the  well- 
dressed,  respectable  man  by  his  side,  little  dreaming 
that  he  was  protecting  the  very  man  whom  the  Box- 
ers were  seeking.  On  this  cart  Mr.  Wen  rode  to 
Peking.  Several  times  Boxers,  who  did  not  recognize 
him,  stopped  the  cart  to  search  and  question  him,  but 
he  happened  to  have  the  card  of  Weng  T'un  Ho,  tutor 
to  the  emperor,  one  of  the  highest  officials  in  the  realm, 
and,  thinking  that  he  had  been  dispatched  on  official 
business,  they  allowed  him  to  proceed. 

The  son  has  told  only  in  barest  outline  of  the  two 
months  of  terror  spent  in  Peking.  Two  or  three  days 
after  the  allies  reached  the  capital^  Mr.  Wen,  haggard 
with  suffering  and  fear,  went  to  the  British  Legation 
to  entreat  the  help  of  T'ungchou  missionaries.  He  had 
just  passed  through  a  most  terrible  experience,  with 
great  difficulty  saving  his  gentle,  timid  wife  from  the 
lust  of  rough  Cossacks.  He  showed  his  back,  bruised 
and  bleeding  from  the  heavy  labor  and  cruel  treatment. 
Russians  had  impressed  him  as  a  beast  of  burden. 
Mrs.  Wen  was  at  once  rescued  by  the  missionaries 
and  the  family  continued  to  live  under  their  protection 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      349 

in  Peking.  The  suffering  of  those  days  after  the 
dreaded  European  soldiers  reached  Peking  doubtless 
occasioned  the  illness  which  carried  Mr.  Wen  to  his 
grave. 

TEACHER   WANG 

For  twenty-five  years  this  Confucianist  scholar, 
from  one  of  the  best  old  families  of  T'ungchou,  had  acted 
as  private  teacher  to  different  missionaries  in  the  city. 
As  a  true  gentleman,  a  refined  and  genial  friend,  he 
was  loved  and  respected  by  all,  and  for  no  one  in 
T'ungchou  had  more  fervent  prayer  been  offered  than 
for  him.  His  duties  as  teacher  and  translator  had  made 
him  very  familiar  with  the  Bible  and  Christian  the- 
ology. From  the  first  Christianity  appealed  both  to 
his  intellect  and  to  his  heart.  But  upon  him  would 
devolve  the  rites  of  ancestral  worship  when  his  aged 
mother  died ;  it  would  break  her  heart  if  he  became 
a  Christian.  The  filial  piety  which  is  the  very  root 
of  Confucianism  prompted  him  to  resolve  that,  while 
his  beloved  mother  lived,  he  would  not  take  upon  him 
the  name  of  Christ.  To  a  servant  in  missionary  em- 
ploy he  said  with  deep  emotion,  "I  envy  you ;  you  can 
become  a  Christian ;  I  can  not."  He  sat  sometimes  in 
religious  gatherings,  his  head  drooping  lower  and 
lower,  a  pathetic  look  of  distress  on  his  face,  as  the 
truth  was  borne  in  upon  his  soul.  To  a  missionary 
who  presented  to  him  the  claims  of  Christ,  he  said 
appealingly,  *'Do  not  speak  to  me  on  this  subject;  I 
can  not  bear  it." 

Yet  Teacher  Wang  is  numbered  with  the  slain  at 
T'ungchou.  Of  his  death  there  are  two  accounts.  One 
is  that  he  and  a  friend  were  passing  a  Boxer  temple 
in  the  north  suburb  of  T'ungchou,  and  the  friend  said, 
"Let  us  go  in  and  see  the  fun."    Teacher  Wang  drew 


350      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

back  with  a  look  of  horror,  and  the  Boxers,  seeing  the 
expression  on  his  face,  exclaimed,  "He  is  an  erh  mao- 
tzu,"  and  set  upon  him  with  their  swords. 

Wen  Lao  Yen  before  his  death  gave  an  account 
which  he  had  heard  from  Teacher  Wang's  relatives, 
who,  being  themselves  opposed  to  Christianity,  would 
be  interested  in  denying  rather  than  affirming  his  Chris- 
tian faith.  They  said  that  the  Boxers  dragged  Teacher 
Wang  to  their  shrine,  and  commanded  him  to  bow  down. 
He  replied,  "For  many  years  I  have  worshiped  only  the 
one  true  God ;  I  will  not  worship  your  idols." 

The  two  accounts  are  not  conflicting.  Let  us  hope 
that,  whether  or  not  Teacher  Wang  died  rather  than 
to  deny  Christ,  in  that  last  agony  he  looked  up  to  the 
Savior  whom  he  had  never  confessed  before  men,  and 
heard  the  words,  "To-day  thou  shalt  be  with  me  in 
Paradise." 

A  DAY-SCHOOIv  GIRIv 

My  home  was  in  such  a  tiny  little  hamlet,  just  three 
families,  all  very  poor,  living  in  the  midst  of  our  little 
garden  and  farms.  There  were  larger  villages  close 
about  us,  and  over  a  mile  away,  hidden  from  our  view 
by  a  tree-shaded  village,  rose  the  five  buildings  of  the 
North  China  College.  A  little  farther  away  lay  the 
walled  city  of  T'ungchou. 

One  of  the  families  in  our  village  was  Christian, 
and  the  oldest  daughter,  Li  Yii  T'ang,  studied  many 
years  in  the  Bridgman  School  in  Peking.  When  she 
came  home  for  vacations  she  would  teach  her  little 
brother  and  sister  to  sing  and  repeat  Bible  verses.  We 
liked  to  hear  the  singing,  and  though  we  were  afraid 
at  first — for  we  had  heard  very  bad  stories  about  the 
Jesus  Church  people — gradually  we  were  wont  to  join 
in  the  lessons,  and  my  mother  used  to  slip  into  the  room 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      351 

to  listen,  too.  I  was  then  a  little  girl  about  seven  years 
old,  and  my  two  brothers,  one  older,  one  younger  than 
I,  liked  the  singing  as  well  as  I  did.  Later  a  little 
school  was  started  over  half  a  mile  from  my  home, 
taught  by  a  young  woman  who  loved  little  children 
dearly.  How  happy  we  were  when  our  parents  let  us 
two  older  children  go  there  to  study !  Very  soon  we 
learned  to  pray  and  to  love  Jesus.  Often  on  Sunday 
one  of  the  missionary  ladies  would  come  to  our  vil- 
lage for  a  little  meeting,  and  my  mother  always  went 
to  listen.  I  think  that  she  believed  in  Jesus,  too,  but 
she  had  not  learned  to  read,  and  could  not  go  to  the 
meetings  in  the  big  church ;  so  I  do  not  think  that 
many  people  knew  that  she  wanted  to  be  a  Christian. 

So  the  happy  years  went  by  until  the  spring  of  1900, 
when  I  was  ten  years  old.  Then  the  Boxer  society  was 
started,  and  soon  our  little  school  was  closed.  Before 
light  on  the  morning  of  June  8th,  about  twenty  carts 
passed  our  door.  It  was  the  missionaries  and  some  of 
the  Christians  fleeing  to  Peking,  and  we  heard  that 
many  Christians  ten  miles  away  in  the  country  had 
already  been  killed  by  Boxers.  The  next  night  we  saw 
the  whole  plain  dotted  with  lanterns.  Swarms  of  people 
were  gathering  at  the  college  to  carry  off  everything 
of  value  on  which  they  could  lay  their  hands.  Then 
we  saw  the  sky  all  aflame  as  the  great  buildings,  one 
after  another,  were  burned  to  the  ground.  Our  Chris- 
tian neighbors  fled  that  night  to  Peking.  A  day  or  two 
later  we  saw  the  city  lighted  up,  and  knew  that  the 
Boxers  were  burning  the  missions  there,  too.  Many  a 
time  we  stood  and  watched  bands  of  red-sashed  Boxers 
pass  only  a  few  rods  from  our  door,  and  heard  how 
they  were  hunting  down  the  Christians  everywhere. 
It  made  our  hearts  very,  very  sad ;  still  we  had  no  fear 
for  ourselves,  for  none  of  us  were  Church  members. 


352      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

But  just  seventeen  days  after  the  missionaries  had 
taken  refuge  in  Peking,  a  band  of  Boxers  passing  our 
village,  remarked  that  they  would  come  that  night  and 
kill  the  "erh  mao-tzu."  "They  must  mean  the  Li's," 
said  my  mother,  when  she  heard  of  it.  "Probably  they 
do  not  know  that  they  have  fled."  So  we  did  not  feel 
afraid.  My  oldest  brother,  Jui  Fang,  went  to  work  in 
a  field  about  half  a  mile  away,  and  my  little  brother 
went  out  in  that  direction  to  play.  My  father  went 
into  the  city,  and  had  just  come  back  and  eaten  his 
meal  at  about  five  o'clock.  I  went  out  into  the  yard, 
and  saw  about  thirty  fierce-looking  Boxers,  armed  with 
knives  and  rifles,  coming  straight  toward  our  house. 
There  was  no  time  to  run.  Soon  my  father  and  mother 
were  seized,  and  their  hands  tied  behind  them  with 
strong  cords.  My  baby  sister,  only  a  few  months  old, 
was  laid  down  on  the  ground,  and  father,  mother,  and 
I  were  led  toward  the  large  village  of  Hsiao  Chuang, 
where  the  Boxers  had  an  altar. 

Twice  I  tried  to  run  away,  but  the  Boxers  caught 
me  again.  A  rabble  ran  along  with  the  Boxers  to  see 
the  fun.  I  was  walking  about  the  middle  of  the  com- 
pany. The  Boxers  in  the  rear  stopped  for  something, 
while  those  in  front  walked  on,  dragging  my  father 
and  mother,  and  I  was  left  for  a  moment  alone.  We 
happened  to  be  close  by  a  ravine.  A  man  whom  I  did 
not  know  came  up  to  my  side  and  said,  "Run  into  that 
ravine!  Quick!"  I  darted  into  its  shadows,  and  no 
one  noticed  me.  Soon  it  was  dark,  and  I  made  my  way 
back  to  the  place  which  I  once  called  home.  A  kind 
neighbor  had  picked  up  my  baby  sister,  and  was  caring 
for  her.  The  next  morning  my  two  brothers  came. 
A  neighbor  had  warned  them,  and  they  had  hidden 
away  through  the  night.  How  sad  our  hearts  were! 
Would  they  kill  our  parents  ?    Why,  father  did  n't  be- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  UF  MARTYRS      353 

lieve  in  Jesus  at  all,  not  even  in  his  heart,  and  mother 
had  never  confessed  him.  But  our  neighbors  told  us 
that  the  Boxers  seized  them  because  they  let  us  study 
in  the  foreigners'  school.  Later  we  heard  that  after 
they  had  dragged  father  and  mother  to  the  Boxer  altar, 
they  began  to  burn  incense  and  work  the  other  charms 
which  they  use  to  tell  whether  their  captives  are  Chris- 
tians or  not.  But  my  mother  said:  "You  need  not 
burn  incense.  You  accuse  me  of  being  a  Christian. 
Then  kill  me  with  one  stroke  of  the  sword."  Then 
they  cut  them  to  pieces  with  their  great  knives.  We 
did  not  know  this  that  morning  as  we  talked  together 
in  our  deserted  home ;  but  we  had  little  hope  of  ever 
seeing  them  again,  and  we  knew  that  the  Boxers  might 
come  back  any  minute  to  look  for  us.  So  that  long  day 
we  three  children  hid  among  the  dense  evergreen-trees 
in  a  large  cemetery.  Then  we  wandered  to  the  home 
of  a  distant  relative,  who  let  us  stay  a  day.  After  that, 
two  uncles  took  us  back  to  the  house  which  had  once 
been  our  happy  home,  and  there  they  cared  for  us  as 
best  they  could  until  the  cold  November  days  came. 
Then  the  T'ungchou  Christians  who  had  escaped  from 
the  Boxers  and  were  still  living  in  Peking,  heard  about 
us,  and  soon  we  three  half-starved,  ragged  children 
were  being  tenderly  cared  for  in  the  Orphans'  Home 
in  Peking. 

My  baby  sister  died  of  sickness,  and  I  know  that 
mother  was  glad  up  in  heaven  when  she  got  her  in 
her  arms  again. 

On  the  T'ungchou  Church  roll  were  the  names  of 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  Church  members,  and  of 
perhaps  a  hundred  probationers  and  children  who  had 
been  baptized  in  infancy.  Nearly  half  of  these  names 
are  now  written  on  T'ungchou's  martyr-roll.  Outside 
23 


354      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

of  these  were  hundreds  of  Boxer  victims,  some  of  whom 
were  slain  simply  because  they  were  related  to  Chris- 
tians, and  some  of  whom,  like  those  mentioned  in  the 
three  preceding  narratives,  may  be  classed  as  "adhe- 
rents." One  of  these,  a  woman  who  had  attended 
Christian  services,  but  who  had  no  connection  with 
the  Church,  when  seized  by  the  Boxers,  boldly  refused 
to  burn  incense,  declaring  that  she  believed  in  God. 
We  had  not  thought  her  ready  to  enter  the  Church 
militant.  God  knew  her  heart,  and  received  her  into 
the  Church  triumphant. 

"  So  long  thy  power  has  blest  me,  sure  it  still 

Will  lead  me  on 
O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent,  till 

The  night  is  gone. 
And  with  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile, 
Which  I  have  loved  long  since,  and  lost  awhile." 


CHAPTER  IX 
MARTYR  DAYS  IN  PAO  TING  FU 

"  It  is  enough  for  the  servant  that  he  be  as  his  Master." 

In  Pao  Tinp^  Fii,  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  south- 
west of  Peking,  the  China  Inland  Mission  had  a  busi- 
ness agency ;  but  missionary  work  was  prosecuted  only 
by  the  American  Board  and  the  Presbyterian  Board, 
the  former  having  been  established  many  years.  In 
this  region,  though  comparatively  few  Protestants  were 
killed,  the  leaders  in  the  Church  were  hunted  down 
remorselessly,  and  the  Christians  who  escaped  v/ith 
their  lives,  in  most  cases  lost  all  else. 

THE  STORY  OF  CHANG  CH'iNG  HSIANG 
(Recorded  as  he  gave  it  orally.) 
I  had  intended  to  remain  in  T'ungchou  and  study 
in  the  summer  school ;  for  I  was  to  graduate  from  the 
North  China  College  in  a  year,  and  wanted  a  little 
extra  study.  But  by  the  time  school  closed.  May  23d, 
such  alarming  reports  had  come  of  Boxer  troubles  in 
Pao  Ting  Fu  that  I  felt  I  must  go  home  to  care  for 
my  widowed  mother.  She  and  my  married  sister  were 
the  only  Christians  in  the  family  except  myself,  and 
my  mother,  being  a  Bible-woman,  was  well  known, 
not  only  in  Pao  Ting  Fu,  but  in  the  villages  and  out- 
stations,  which  she  had  often  visited  with  Miss  Morrill ; 
so  she  would  be  in  special  danger  if  trouble  broke  out. 
Our  home  was  in  a  little  village  less  than  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  west  gate  of  the  city. 

355 


356      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Boxers  were  already  practicing  in  Pao  Ting  Fu, 
but  for  a  month  after  my  return  they  performed  their 
rites  in  private.  I  went  every  day  to  the  chapel  on  one 
of  the  busy  streets  of  the  city  to  help  Pastor  Meng 
talk  to  the  throngs  who  flocked  in.  Never  before 
had  the  chapel  been  so  crowded,  and  the  audience  would 
sit  quietly,  giving  no  sign  either  of  assent  of  dissent. 
But  often  we  would  hear  the  loud  voice  of  a  passerby 
singing:  "What!  preaching  here  yet?  It  will  not  be 
long  before  they  are  all  killed." 

By  the  20th  of  June  we  knew  that  the  missions  in 
Peking  and  T'tmgchou  had  been  burned  and  hundreds 
of  Christians  massacred.  During  the  next  few  days 
the  storm  which  had  been  gathering  for  months  grew 
more  threatening.  The  Boxers  began  practicing 
openly,  though  we  did  not  yet  see  them  in  battle  array 
on  the  streets.  Already  there  had  been  several  bat- 
tles with  the  Roman  Catholics  intrenched  at  a  village 
thirteen  miles  south  of  Pao  Ting  Fu,  battles  in  which 
the  Pao  Ting  Fu  Boxers  were  leaders.  Often  during 
the  past  months  we  had  been  assured  that  the  Boxers 
had  no  enmity  against  Protestants ;  but  the  reports 
from  Peking  convinced  us  that  they  would  not  long 
continue  to  discriminate. 

Toward  the  end  of  June  several  of  the  mission 
helpers  and  students  were  persuaded  to  return  to  their 
homes  in  other  places  to  care  for  their  families.  Threats 
were  growing  louder,  and  it  was  only  a  question  of  a 
few  days  when  the  trouble  would  culminate.  Faithful 
Pastor  Meng  read  the  signs  of  the  times.  Unwilling 
to  desert  the  Church  and  the  missionaries,  he  decided 
to  send  away  his  oldest  son,  Ti-to,  in  the  care  of  the 
chapel-keeper,  Mr.  T'ien,  and  we  had  no  thought  of 
going.  Flight  and  concealment  were  impossible  for 
the  missionaries,  and  we  would  stay  with  them. 


Chant;   C'ii'ixc;   Hsian(; 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      357 

My  mother  was  still  living  in  our  home  in  the  west 
suburb.  On  the  27th  of  June,  when  I  was  in  the  street 
chapel  as  usual,  a  report  reached  me  which  made  my 
heart  stand  still.  A  Christian  had  been  killed  at  the 
west  gate.  I  started  for  home.  Not  daring  to  go  by 
the  west  gate,  as  the  Boxers  in  that  vicinity  knew  me, 
I  ran  to  the  south  gate,  and  thence  homeward.  Im- 
agine my  joy  when  I  saw  my  brother  and  sister,  and 
they  said,  "Mother  is  safe;  you  '11  find  her  in  the  inner 
court."  There  I  heard  her  story.  The  Boxers  had 
caught  two  Catholics.  One  had  been  chopped  to  pieces 
close  by  our  gate,  the  other  in  the  west  gate  of  the  city. 
All  thought  that  the  blood-maddened  mob  would  rush 
into  our  yard.  My  mother  sent  my  brother  and  sister- 
in-law  to  hide  in  a  neighbor's  house.  "You  are  not 
Christians,  and  they  will  not  search  for  you."  Then 
spreading  a  mat  under  a  tree  in  our  yard,  she  sat  down 
and  awaited  the  death  which  seemed  inevitable.  "Were 
you  not  afraid?"  I  asked.  "No,"  she  said  smiling: 
"why  should  I  be  afraid?"  I  said:  "It  is  sure  death  to 
stay  here.  Do  n't  you  think  you  had  better  hide  away 
with  relatives  in  the  country  until  the  storm  has 
passed?"  "No,"  was  her  reply;  "you  know  how  I  love 
Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould.  I  will  not  leave  them ; 
if  they  die,  I  will  die  with  them."  "Then  let  us  go  to 
the  mission  to  live,  where  we  can  die  together."  My 
mother  assented,  and  a  cart  was  hired  to  take  her 
to  the  south  suburb  early  the  next  morning. 

It  was  now  the  28th  of  June.  That  very  morning, 
Mr.  T'ien  and  Ti-to  had  fled.  Our  city  chapel  was 
a  rented  house,  and  the  landlord  refused  to  let  us  oc- 
cupy it  longer,  fearing  that  it  would  be  burned.  So  I 
spent  several  hours  with  Pastor  Meng,  sending  our 
furniture  and  books  to  a  temple  where  a  magistrate 
had  given  us  permission  to  store  them.     About  three 


358      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

in  the  afternoon  I  said  to  Pastor  Meng,  "I  am  hungry ; 
I  '11  go  to  the  mission  and  get  something  to  eat,  then 
come  back."  Ging  toward  the  south  gate,  I  noticed 
that  the  inns  were  swarming  with  Boxers,  whom  I 
did  not  recognize.  Evidently  there  was  a  gathering 
of  the  clans  from  outside.  I  had  hardly  reached  the 
mission  when  a  Christian,  whom  I  had  left  helping  Pas- 
tor Meng,  rushed  in,  pale  and  breathless,  *'The  Box- 
ers have  seized  Pastor  Meng,"  he  gasped.  It  took 
only  a  few  sentences  to  tell  his  story.  The  Boxers  had 
burst  into  the  chapel  without  a  second's  warning,  and 
laid  hands  on  the  pastor ;  the  other  man,  who  happened 
to  be  in  the  rear  of  the  building,  jumped  over  the  back 
wall  and  escaped. 

I  knew  that  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  end,  and 
went  with  a  heavy  heart  to  carry  the  sad  tidings  to 
Mr.  Pitkin.  Soon  the  rumor  reached  us  that  two  young 
men,  mission-helpers,  had  been  seized  in  their  lodg- 
ings not  far  from  us.  There  was  no  foundation  for 
this  report,  but  at  the  time  we  saw  no  reason  to  doubt 
it,  and  fully  expected  that  an  attack  would  be  made 
on  us  that  night.  We  were  a  little  company,  and  Mr. 
Pitkin's  revolver  was  our  only  weapon  of  defense.  I 
went  to  the  room  of  Pastor  Meng's  sister,  Mrs.  Tu,  who 
had  been  a  Bible-woman  for  many  years,  to  tell  her 
about  her  brother.  The  brave  little  woman  did  not 
break  down,  though  she  said  at  once  that  there  was 
no  hope  for  him.  As  I  was  leaving  she  said  to  me: 
**Why  should  you  young  men  who  are  educated  for 
the  service  of  the  Church  throw  away  your  lives  ?  You 
can  protect  no  one  by  staying  here.  If  all  die,  who 
will  lay  the  foundations  of  the  Church  again  after  the 
storm  has  passed?  The  work  of  us  old  people  is  fin- 
ished; yours  is  not.  Why  not  escape  before  it  is  too 
late?" 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      359 

I  shall  never  forget  my  last  talk  with  Mr.  Pitkin, 
Miss  Morrill,  and  Miss  Gould  that  evening.  We  had 
little  thought  that  the  night  would  pass  in  peace.  I 
had  just  told  them  that  the  Boxers  had  seized  our  two 
helpers  close  by.  "We  shall  see  the  Lord  soon,"  said 
Miss  Morrill ;  "they  have  only  gone  a  little  earlier." 
They  asked  me  if  I  would  not  try  to  get  away,  and 
when  I  said  I  had  no  thought  of  leaving,  Mr.  Pitkin 
laughingly  asked  if  I  would  be  his  cook.  We  parted 
with  the  usual  salutations,  the  last  remark  being  that 
the  day  was  very  hot.    I  never  saw  them  again. 

Momentarily  expecting  an  attack,  I  did  not  sleep 
that  night.  At  the  first  flush  of  dawn  I  went  to  my 
mother's  room.  Very  solemn  and  tender  were  the 
words  which  she  spoke  to  me.  "My  dear  son,  now  that 
things  have  come  to  a  crisis,  I  want  you  to  leave  me. 
You  can  not  save  my  life  by  staying.  I  have  conse- 
crated you  to  the  service  of  the  Lord,  and  I  can  not 
let  you  sacrifice  your  life  for  me.  To-day  or  to-morrow 
the  blow  will  fall,  and  I  want  you  to  go  now.  If  you 
delay,  the  Boxers  may  be  upon  us.  Did  not  God  save 
your  life  yesterday  almost  by  a  miracle,  when  Pastor 
Meng  was  killed?    God  wills  that  you  should  live." 

I  will  pass  over  the  anguish  of  those  moments. 
Before  many  people  were  astir  I  had  made  my  way 
through  the  south  suburb,  where  I  was  so  well  known, 
and  at  home  found  my  sister,  still  alone.  "Are  you 
not  going  to  the  mission?"  I  asked.  "No,  I  prefer  to 
die  here.  But  you  must  not  stay.  I  have  heard  the 
Boxers  talking  on  the  city  gate-tower,  pointing  to  this 
place,  and  saying  that  they  must  seize  you  and  Mr. 
T'ien.  Go  quickly."  When  I  bade  my  sister  fare- 
well she  wept  bitterly,  and  I  tried  to  comfort  her,  say- 
ing, "If  it  is  the  Lord's  will,  we  will  soon  meet  again 
here ;  if  not,  we  will  have  a  happy  reunion  in  heaven." 


36o      CHINA'S  BOOK  O^  MARTYRS 

I  crossed  the  river  and  hired  a  donkey  to  carry 
me  a  few  miles.  I  had  no  definite  plan,  but  thought  I 
would  go  not  far  away,  and  return  soon.  I  did  not 
recognize  the  boy  with  the  donkey,  but  I  noticed  that 
he  stared  at  me  curiously.  After  going  less  than  two 
miles  we  approached  the  village  of  Wu  Li.  Fearing 
the  Boxers  there,  I  told  the  boy  to  take  a  branch  road 
by  the  railway.  "Why  do  n't  you  go  through  the  vil- 
lage?" he  asked.  "Are  you  a  Christian?"  "That  has 
nothing  to  do  with  our  business,"  I  replied.  "I  shall 
pay  you  just  the  same  at  the  end  of  our  journey 
whether  I  am  a  Christian  or  not." 

I  will  anticipate  a  little  by  stating  that  the  boy  has- 
tened back  to  Wu  Li  after  I  had  dismissed  him,  and 
told  the  Boxers  that  I  was  going  south  on  the  road  to 
Wang  Tu.  They  started  some  armed  men  on  horse- 
back in  pursuit.  These  men  must  have  passed  me  on 
the  highway,  for  I  afterward  learned  that  they  reached 
the  city  of  Wang  Tu  several  hours  before  I  did.  How 
did  I  escape  their  notice  ?  Surely  this  was  God's  special 
protection.  After  the  donkey-boy  left  me,  as  I  was 
trudging  along  the  hot,  dusty  highway,  an  open  cart 
came  slowly  behind  me,  in  which  sat  a  handcuffed 
prisoner  with  men  guarding  him.  It  was  a  dirty  cart, 
with  a  most  disreputable  passenger;  but  I  was  ex- 
hausted by  traveling  and  loss  of  food  and  sleep,  and 
when  they  gave  me  permission  to  get  in,  I  lay  down 
beside  the  prisoner,  covered  my  face  with  my  hand- 
kerchief, and  was  soon  in  a  dead  sleep.  There  I  must 
have  been  lying  when  the  Boxers  passed,  and  as  they 
returned  that  day  by  the  same  road,  they  must  have 
twice  passed  that  strange  vehicle  along  the  road. 

I  reached  Wang  Fu,  thirty  miles  from  Pao  Ting 
Fu,  about  sunset,  and  went  into  an  inn  in  a  suburb, 
close  by  a  yamen.    Two  men  stared  at  me  as  I  entered, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      361 

and  seemed  to  be  talking  about  mc.     Soon  I  caught 
the  remark,  "I  am  sure  he  is  the  one  who  went  to 
Hsiao  Hsin  village  to  preach."    They  were  yamen  at- 
tendants, whose  home  was  in  the  village  near  by,  where 
one  of  our  chapels  was  located ;  and  though  I  did  not 
know  them,  it  was  evident  that  they  had  recognized 
me,  and  that  I  was  not  safe  here.     I  went  toward  llio 
south  gate  of  the  city  near  by  to  see  whether  there  were 
any  Boxers  in  the  neighborhood,  and  saw  a  company 
of  them  eating  just  outside  the  gate.     I  had  no  time 
to  lose,  and  at  once  I  turned  my  face  homeward.    About 
three  miles  from  Wang  Tu  I  came  to  a  village  where 
a  Christian  family  lived.     I  had  only  visited  this  vil- 
lage once,  and  thinking  there  was  little  danger  of  rec- 
ognition, I  ventured  to  pass  through  it  to  see  whether 
the  family  had  been  molested.    As  I  reached  the  place 
a  young  woman   who  had   studied  in   our  boarding- 
school  came  to  the  gate.     In  answer  to  my  hasty  in- 
quiries she  said  that  they  were  still  living  peacefully. 
I  had  just  begun  to  tell  her  about  Pao  Ting  Fu  when, 
from  the  south  end  of  the  village,  the  cry  arose,  Jl^. 
rafhnliV  liag  jngt  rnmp     Let  US  scizc  him !"    The  cry 
was  followed  by  the  sound  of  rushing  feet,  and  as 
I  fled  northward  I  was  followed  by  a  mob  of  villaerers 
armed  with  spades,  rakes,  clubs,  and  other  implements. 
They  were  not  Boxers,  but  had  not  the  order  been 
given  that  they  should  allow  no  stranger  to  enter  their 
village?     I  knew  that  if  I  ran  on  the  highway  I  must 
pass  through  many  villages,  and  would  surely  be  seized 
as  I  ran,  so  I  bounded  through  grainfields  and  made 
my  way  to  the  railroad.     It  was  already  twilight,  else 
men  would  have  been  working  in  the  fields,  and  my 
flight  would  have  been  intercepted.     The  cries  of  the 
pursuing  mob  rang  in  my  cars.    Could  I  outrun  them  ? 
A  man  with  a  shovel  seemed  close  upon  my  heels. 


362       CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

I  called  out,  "If  you  come  too  near,  1 11  stone  you." 
The  race  for  life  continued  in  the  deepening  darkness, 
and  not  until  we  had  run  three  or  four  miles  did  my 
pursuers  give  up  the  chase. 

Still  I  did  not  dare  linger;  for  I  knew  that  I  had 
been  recognized  in  Wang  Tu,  and  expected  that  horse- 
men would  follow  on  my  track.  Perhaps  it  was  only 
imagination,  but  I  was  certain  that  the  sound  of  horses' 
feet  was  borne  on  the  night  wind.  There  was  no  moon, 
not  even  a  star,  and  soon  rain  began  to  fall.  The 
railroad  bed  had  been  newly  laid  with  broken  stone; 
in  the  light  one  could  pick  a  smooth  path,  but  in  the 
dense  darkness  my  bruised  feet  struck  the  sharp  edges 
at  almost  every  step.  Then  came  a  strange  light  on 
my  pathway  which  will  never  fade  from  my  memory. 
Directly  in  front  of  me  clouds  hung  on  the  horizon, 
palpitating  with  almost  constant  lightning  flashes. 
Each  flash  seemed  to  light  up  the  road  for  miles  before 
me,  and  my  tired  feet  could  pick  their  way  among  the 
cruel  stones.  It  seemed  like  God's  finger  beckoning 
me  to  that  little  home  outside  the  city,  close  to  which 
the  railroad  ran.  If  men  had  been  in  search  of  me 
that  night,  those  lightning  flashes  would  have  betrayed 
me  to  them;  but  just  after  day  broke  I  saw  the  walls 
of  Pao  Ting  Fu. 

Can  you  picture  my  sorry  plight  after  that  terrible 
race  of  thirty  miles?  For  two  days  I  had  eaten  noth- 
ing; my  shoes,  worn  to  shreds,  were  far  behind  me 
on  the  road ;  my  stockings  were  clinging  in  tatters, 
and  five  toenails  had  dropped  from  my  bleeding  feet. 
My  legs,  swollen  far  beyond  their  natural  size,  ached 
intensely.  I  could  not  bear  to  grieve  my  sister  by 
the  sight  of  my  sufl:"ering,  so  I  went  to  the  home  of 
other  relatives  in  the  village.  They  hardly  knew 
whether  to  cry  over  my  misery  or  to  joy  over  my  de- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  UF  MARTYRS      363 

llvcrance;  for  they  had  heard  that  I  had  been  killed 
by  the  Wu  Li  Boxers.  *'You  must  n't  stay  here  an 
hour,"  they  said.  I  replied,  "It  is  impossible  for  me 
to  walk  a  step  farther;  if  I  must  die,  it  will  be  here.'* 
Then  I  lay  down  on  the  p^round,  completely  overcome 
with  fatij^ue  and  drowsiness.  lUit  they  would  not 
allow  mc  to  sleep  lonj^^.  Finding  shoes  and  stockings 
for  me,  and  smoothing  my  disheveled  hair,  they  started 
mc  off  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour  after  my  ar- 
rival. Two  men  walked  beside  me  as  we  passed  north- 
west across  the  railway,  and  we  met  no  one  who  knew 
me.  Safely  outside  the  environs  of  the  city,  my  friends 
went  back  and  I  continued  my  journey  toward  the 
northwest.  My  swollen  legs  gave  me  no  pain,  my 
bruised  feet  ached  no  more,  the  sleepiness  and  weak- 
ness had  disappeared.  The  day  was  almost  gone  when 
I  reached  a  little  inn  in  the  mountains.  As  I  was  rest- 
ing in  the  inn  I  heard  men  outside  talking  about  a 
fire  in  Pao  Ting  Fu.  Hastening  out,  and  climbing  the 
mountain-side,  I  could  see  plainly  that  the  fire  was 
in  the  north  suburb  of  the  city  where  the  Presbyterian 
mission  was  located.  Had  our  mission  in  the  south 
suburb  already  been  destroyed  ?  No  words  can  tell 
the  anguish  in  my  heart  as  I  went  back  to  the  inn.  I 
had  no  definite  destination  when  I  started  on  my  flight ; 
but  the  next  morning  I  decided  to  go  to  the  home  of  a 
man,  not  a  Christian,  whom  I  had  known  from  child- 
hood, as  his  business  was  in  Pao  Ting  Fu.  About 
noon  I  found  Mr.  Yu  in  his  village  home  with  his 
family,  among  whom  were  his  three  sisters,  all  of  whom 
had  studied  in  a  school  taught  by  my  sister.  Mr  Yu 
received  me  most  kindly ;  but  I  had  just  seated  myself 
to  eat  the  food  which  they  prepared  for  me,  when  sev- 
eral of  his  neighbors  came  and  called  him  out.  Soon 
he  came  back,  sighing  deeply. 


364      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"Do  they  know  me?"  I  asked. 

"They  say  you  are  a  Christian  pastor/' 

"Truly  I  am  unworthy  of  that  title.  How  many 
people  are  there  outside?" 

"Over  a  hundred.  They  say  that  the  foreigners 
are  the  most  proficient  in  arts  of  malignant  witchcraft, 
that  the  native  pastors  are  not  far  behind  them,  while 
the  common  Church  members  rank  third  in  the  devil- 
ish art." 

"It  is  not  likely  that  they  will  let  me  go.  But  you 
go  out  and  tell  them  the  exact  truth ;  that  I  am  not  a 
pastor,  but  that  from  a  child  I  have  been  a  Christian; 
that  I  have  studied  many  years  in  the  Christian  schools, 
and  am  still  a  student." 

Mr.  Yii  repeated  my  words  to  the  crowd,  adding 
that  he  had  known  me  since  I  was  a  child,  and  that 
my  character  was  without  reproach.  "You  are  all 
my  neighbors,"  he  said,  in  conclusion;  "let  him  go 
for  my  sake."  Then  he  came  back,  saying,  "They 
consent  to  your  release,  since  you  are  only  a  student; 
but  you  must  go  at  once." 

A  heavy  rain  was  falling.  Mr.  Yii  gave  me  an 
umbrella,  and  walked  with  me  up  the  narrow  mountain 
valley  in  which  the  village  was  located.  It  was  a  lit- 
tle path  which  we  followed,  and  we  met  no  one.  He 
walked  with  me  almost  a  mile,  until  we  were  in  sight 
of  the  mountain  pass  which  I  was  to  enter.  Then  I 
urged  him  to  go  back,  saying  in  farewell :  "You  un- 
derstand something  of  the  truth  which  I  believe.  If  the 
Lord  spares  my  life,  I  will  see  you  again."  As  I 
climbed  the  gorge  in  the  rain,  and  looked  up  at  the 
mountain  wrapped  in  mist,  I  thought :  "Perhaps  this 
man  is  the  only  friend  now  left  me  on  earth.  If  I  had 
not  God  for  my  refuge  and  strength,  what  could  I  do  ?" 
Afterwards  I  knew  that  on  this  very  Sabbath  morning 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      3<^>5 

our  mission  was  destroyed  and  all  of  the  missionaries 
and  many  Christians  massacred.  Yet  as  I  made  my 
way  alone  up  the  mountain,  my  heart  was  not  over- 
whelmed with  either  grief  or  fear,  for  it  was  full  of 
God's  sweet  comfort.  "God  has  a  plan  in  it  all,"  I 
thought. 

My  friend  had  warned  me  that  my  mountain  jour- 
ney would  be  dangerous.  ''There  are  wild  beasts  there, 
and  after  you  enter  the  pass  you  will  find  many  branch- 
ing ways.  If  you  go  wrong,  you  may  get  into  moun- 
tain solitudes  and  be  unable  to  make  your  way  out. 
Your  chances  of  death  are  many,  of  life  few,"  he  said 
sadly.  As  I  entered  the  pass,  I  prayed  that  God  would 
guide  my  steps.  Almost  immediately  I  came  to  fork- 
ing ways.  Lifting  my  heart  again  in  prayer,  I  took  one 
of  the  paths,  and  very  soon  came  upon  three  men  who 
had  taken  shelter  from  the  rain  in  a  little  temple  by 
the  wayside.  One  of  them  was  a  tobacco  merchant. 
They  asked  me  where  I  was  going.  "To  Kuang 
Ch'eng,"  I  replied,  naming  a  city  about  seventy  miles 
northwest  of  Pao  Ting  Fu.  "My  way  also  lies  in  that 
direction,"  said  the  merchant ;  "go  with  me."  He  was 
a  stranger,  and  did  not  suspect  that  I  was  a  Christian. 
As  the  rain  ceased,  we  journeyed  on  together,  and 
when  we  stopped  that  night  in  an  inn  where  he  was 
well  known,  his  introduction  of  me  as  a  friend  over- 
came the  scruples  of  the  landlord  against  admitting 
a  stranger.  How  again  and  again  God  sent  strangers 
to  guide  me,  to  take  me  with  them  to  inns,  to  give  me 
of  their  food,  to  lend  me  a  donkey  or  mule  to  ride  when 
they  saw  how  I  stumbled  on  my  maimed  feet,  and  to 
show  me  many  other  kindnesses,  I  can  not  tell,  for  my 
story  is  growing  too  long.  From  June  30th,  when 
I  last  left  Pao  Ting  Fu,  until  July  iSth,  when  I  reached 
Tai  Yuan  Fu,  I  traveled  over  four  hundred  miles,  and 


Z(i(i      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

very  few  steps  of  that  circuitous  route  over  mountains 
and  through  towns  filled  with  Boxers  did  I  take  alone. 

The  last  hundred  and  thirty  miles  of  my  journey 
was  made  with  strange  traveling  companions.  One 
day  I  started  out  alone,  praying  as  usual  that  God 
would  send  me  friends.  When  I  had  gone  about  seven 
miles  I  heard  a  noise  behind  me,  and  saw  a  caravan  of 
mule  litters,  escorted  by  forty  or  fifty  soldiers  and 
many  attendants.  I  stood  by  the  roadside,  and  as  they 
passed  I  saw  by  the  banners  that  soldiers  of  the  famous 
Jung  Lu  were  escorting  the  family  of  the  governor  of 
Shensi,  and  mixing  with  the  soldiers  in  the  rear  I 
learned  that  they  were  bound  for  Hsi  An  Fu  by  way 
of  Tai  Yuan  Fu.  One  of  the  soldiers  soon  made 
friends  with  me,  and  suggested  that  I  fall  in  with  the 
retinue,  as  it  would  be  safer  and  pleasanter  than  trav- 
eling alone.  Little  did  they  think  that  they  were  pro- 
tecting a  Christian,  and  that  but  for  them  I  should  prob- 
ably have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Boxers,  who 
were  then  swarming  like  bees  over  all  that  country. 

I  dropped  behind  the  cavalcade  as  we  approached 
Tai  Yuan  Fu  on  July  i8th.  Nine  days  before,  the  soil 
of  that  now  notorious  city  was  stained  with  the  blood  of 
forty-five  missionaries,  slain  under  the  eye  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  province,  and,  during  the  dark  days  that 
followed.  Boxer  swords  had  been  cutting  down  Prot- 
estants and  Catholics,  old  and  young.  I  did  not  know 
all  this,  but  before  I  reached  the  east  gate  I  met  twelve 
or  fifteen  Boxers  dragging  a  Catholic  woman  to  execu- 
tion, and  so  knew  that  the  Boxers  were  devastating 
this  region,  too.  I  entered  the  east  gate  unnoticed. 
The  great  east  street  was  filled  with  uniformed  Box- 
ers in  battle  array,  accompanied  by  a  rabble  of  men  and 
boys.  In  the  door  of  every  shop  on  the  street  stood 
a  man  with  a  sword  in  his  hand,  to  show  reverence  to 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      z^7 

the  Boxers  as  they  passed.  I  asked  where  they  were 
going,  and  was  lold  that  it  was  to  the  slaughter  of 
some  Calhuhcs.  As  I  walked  on  through  the  city  I 
saw  the  ruins  of  a  cathedral.  "The  missionaries  and 
Christians  must  all  he  dead,"  I  thought ;  "I  can  find  no 
refuge  here."  I  left  the  city  by  the  south  gate,  and 
bought  a  little  food.  I  had  just  about  three  cents  left. 
No  one  in  this  Boxer-infested  country  would  dare  har- 
bor or  feed  a  penniless  stranger.  I  knew  not  where  to 
find  one  Christian,  if  indeed  any  were  left  alive;  and, 
of  course,  a  single  question  would  betray  me  into  the 
hands  of  enemies.  The  next  day  found  me  in  Tai 
Ku,  thirty-six  miles  away,  hoping  against  hope  that 
I  might  find  our  missionaries  still  alive,  or  see  my  col- 
lege classmate,  K'ung  Hsiang  Hsi.  I  learned  by  indi- 
rect inquiries  that  the  missionaries  were  still  living, 
and  found  my  way  without  exciting  suspicion  to  their 
compound.  It  was  raining  hard,  and  no  one  was  in 
sight  on  the  street  as  I  stood  at  the  gate  knocking. 
But  I  could  get  no  response.  In  despair,  I  ventured  to 
ask  a  shopkeeper  to  direct  me  to  the  home  of  K'ung 
Hsiang  Hsi.  Following  his  directions,  I  knocked  at  a 
large  gateway.  A  man  opened  it  just  a  crack,  asked 
me  my  errand  and  where  I  was  from ;  then  shut  the 
gate  and  went  in.  My  classmate  was  concealed  inside, 
and  they  were  constantly  on  guard  against  devices  of 
the  Boxers  to  get  possession  of  him.  So  before  they 
admitted  me  they  had  him  conceal  himself  in  the  room 
where  I  was  to  meet  his  uncle,  and  he  was  to  remain 
quiet  unless  he  recognized  me.  He  came  out  with  a 
bound  as  soon  as  he  saw  my  face.  We  had  strange, 
sad  stories  to  tell  of  the  events  which  had  filled  the 
weeks  since  we  parted.  I  spent  the  night  there,  and 
they  tried  to  devise  plans  for  my  safety,  as  it  would 
soon  be  known  that  they  were  sheltering  a  stranger. 


368      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

Hsiang  Hsi  gave  me  money,  and  proposed  that  I  go  to 
a  school  taught  by  his  father,  about  three  miles  away 
in  the  country,  where  I  might  find  a  safe  refuge.  It 
was  while  I  was  there,  on  the  last  day  of  July,  that  the 
six  missionaries  of  Tai  Ku  were  killed ;  then,  for  three 
or  four  days,  the  Christians  were  hunted  down  and 
slain  like  sheep.  Again  I  sought  Hsiang  Hsi,  and 
found  him  completely  overwhelmed  with  grief  for  the 
missionaries,  not  caring  whether  he  Hved  or  died.  I 
told  him  that  I  was  going  back  to  Pao  Ting  Fu.  He 
urged  me  to  stay,  saying  that  they  would  try  to  find 
another  refuge  for  me,  since  the  school  was  unsafe; 
and  when  I  insisted  that  I  must  go,  he  again  gave  me 
money. 

Before  I  left,  Hsiang  Hsi's  uncle  urged  me  most 
earnestly  to  repent  of  my  evil  ways  and  recant.  "And 
it  will  not  do,"  he  said,  ''just  to  recant  with  your  lips, 
but  you  must  really  hate  Jesus.  If  you  do  not  recant 
from  your  heart  the  Boxer  chief  will  know  it  just  by 
looking  into  your  face."  I  laughingly  replied  that  I 
had  repeatedly  walked  streets  thronged  with  Boxers. 
He  said,  ''But  if  one  of  the  god-incarnated  leaders 
should  set  eyes  upon  you,  you  would  be  seized  imme- 
diately." 

On  this  return  journey,  God  provided  traveling 
companions  for  me  all  the  way  from  Tai  Ku  to  Huai 
Lu,  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  Pao  Ting  Fu. 
I  reached  Huai  Lu  on  August  14th,  the  very  day  the 
relief  army  reached  Peking;  but  of  the  stirring  events 
of  the  past  two  months  I  knew  absolutely  nothing.  I 
only  heard  that  Boxers  were  still  ram^pant  in  Pao  Ting 
Fu.  Again  my  money  was  reduced  to  a  few  cents.  As 
I  prayed  for  guidance,  I  heard  two  men  talking,  and 
knew  from  their  conversation  that  they  were  on  their 
way  to  Chao  Chou,  thirty  or  forty  miles  to  the  south- 


CHINA'vS  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      369 

east.  By  listening;,  I  learned  that  this  region  had  not 
been  desolated  by  the  bloodshed  and  anarchy  which 
had  spread  into  nearly  every  city  of  North  China.  We 
had  a  little  branch  Church  there ;  I  would  go  and  see 
if  any  Christians  were  still  living. 

The  second  day  1  reached  the  vicinity  of  the  city, 
and  found  the  way  to  the  home  of  a  deacon,  who  proved 
a  good  Samaritan  indeed  to  the  ragged,  footsore,  hag- 
gard boy  who  knocked  at  his  door.  I  was  half  starved, 
and  was  crippled  by  a  terrible  ulcer  on  my  leg.  The 
deacon  told  me  that  a  good  official  had  managed  to 
keep  down  the  Boxers  in  that  region  up  to  this  time, 
but  they  had  heard  that  the  Boxers  in  Pao  Ting  Fu 
had  the  Church  register  in  their  possession,  and  they 
expected  to  be  hunted  down  at  any  time.  "Are  >ou 
not  afraid  to  take  me  into  your  home?"  I  asked.  "\o, 
indeed.  If  we  die,  we  will  die  together."  The  dea- 
con called  a  doctor  to  care  for  my  sores,  provided  mc 
with  warmer  clothing  as  the  weather  grew  colder,  and 
when  my  strength  returned  I  helped  him  by  working 
in  the  fields. 

I  staid  here  about  two  months ;  then  the  long  si- 
lence was  broken  by  a  brief  letter  sent  from  Pao  Ting 
Fu  to  the  Church  at  Chao  Chou.  This  letter  stated 
that  the  foreign  army  had  arrived  in  Pao  Ting  Fu, 
and  with  it  had  come  the  younger  Pastor  Meng  from 
Tientsin ;  then  there  were  one  or  two  questions  in 
regard  to  the  state  of  the  Church  at  Chao  Chou.  This 
was  all.  I  did  not  yet  know  the  fate  of  the  mission- 
aries or  of  my  mother  and  sister,  but  I  started  imme- 
diately for  Pao  Ting  Fu. 

Though  I  had  months  before  persuaded  myself 
that  there  was  no  hope  of  seeing  my  dear  ones  again, 
a  keen  pang  smote  me  when  I  entered  our  village  and 
found  only  ruins  on  the  spot  where  our  home  had  stood. 

24 


370      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Even  the  trees  had  been  dug  up  from  the  yard.  I 
went  quickly  to  my  aunt's  home,  and  she  received  me 
as  one  risen  from  the  dead.  The  answers  to  my  first 
eager  questions  filled  my  heart  alternately  with  grief 
and  joy.  The  missionaries  were  all  numbered  with 
the  martyrs,  and  my  mother,  too;  but  my  sister  had 
escaped  most  marvelously,  with  the  greater  number  of 
the  Christians,  and  she  was  living  now  in  the  Christian 
colony  which  Pastor  Meng  had  gathered  together  in 
the  south  suburb,  near  the  ruins  of  the  mission.  There 
we  had  a  solemn,  tearful  reunion.  There  I  heard  that 
my  college  teachers  were  all  alive,  and  most  of  my 
schoolmates.  It  was  Thanksgiving-day  when  I  ap- 
peared among  them  in  Peking.  They  had  heard  that 
I  fled  into  Shansi ;  but  as  the  months  went  by,  they 
had  given  up  all  hope  of  seeing  me  again  until  united 
with  *'that  great  multitude  which  no  man  can  number." 

MRS.   CHANG^  the:  BIBI.K-WOMAN 

Mrs.  Chang  had  her  first  instruction  in  Christianity 
as  nurse  in  a  missionary  family.  By  her  kindly  dis- 
position and  her  receptivity  to  the  truth  she  won  all 
hearts.  Her  oldest  son  and  daughter  were  already 
away  from  her  influence,  but  the  youngest  daughter 
and  her  little  son,  Ch'ing  Hsiang,  were  at  once  placed 
in  the  mission  schools.  Ch'ing  Hsiang  was  then  a 
round-faced,  bright-eyed  lad,  the  joy  of  his  widowed 
mother's  heart;  and  as  his  quick  mind  and  loving 
heart  developed,  and  he  rose  to  the  grade  of  a  senior 
in  college,  she  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  she 
might  see  this  boy,  whom  she  had  made  a  special  of- 
fering to  the  Lord,  a  pastor  and  leader  among  his 
own  people. 

For  eleven  years  Mrs.  Chang  helped  Miss  Morrill 
in  her  country  tours  and  in  her  house-to-house  teaching 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      371 

in  village  homes.  Dearly  she  loved  this  missionary 
who  had  given  so  many  patient  hours  to  her  instruc- 
tion;  and  the  love  was  mutual,  for  Mrs.  Chang's  sin- 
cerity and  faithfulness  and  willingness  to  endure  hard- 
ship made  her  Miss  Morrill's  burden-sharer  and  com- 
panion. 

Mrs.  Chang  was  sixty  years  old  in  1900.  Th.e 
story  of  her  faith  and  devotion  during  the  first  weeks 
of  the  Boxer  trouble  has  already  been  told.  Love  was 
the  magnet  which  drew  her  into  that  doomed  mission 
compound.  She  could  not  bear  that  Miss  Morrill  and 
Miss  Gould,  who  had  forsaken  all  for  her  and  her  peo- 
ple, should  die  alone,  unfriended ;  and  the  struggle 
and  victory  of  that  night  before  she  sent  from  her 
her  beloved  son,  only  those  mothers  can  understand 
whose  love  and  hope  and  ambition  have  centered  on 
one  who  was  consecrated  to  some  special  work.  "I 
have  consecrated  you  to  the  service  of  the  Lord,  and 
I  can  not  let  you  sacrifice  your  life  for  me." 

It  was  on  Friday  morning  when  her  son  left  her. 
We  knew  not  what  arguments  persuaded  Mrs.  Chang 
to  flee  from  the  mission  Sunday  morning,  just  as  the 
Boxers  attacked  the  place.  We  only  know  that  the  de- 
voted band  of  missionaries  had  repeatedly  urged  their 
native  friends  not  to  share  their  fate.  Perhaps  Mrs. 
Chang  heard  from  Miss  Morrill  the  same  earnest  per- 
suasions which  had  sent  her  own  son  off  in  the  morn- 
ing twilight  just  two  days  earlier.  We  know  that  bit- 
ter tears  ran  down  the  old  face  as  she  turned  away. 

The  story  of  the  weary  flight  is  told  by  a  niece 
who  shared  her  wanderings.  The  two  women,  un- 
used to  walking,  drenched  by  rain,  meeting  frequent 
repulses  and  alarms,  made  their  way  through  unknown 
villages,  and  that  night  found  refuge  with  a  Christian 
family,  far  away.     There  they  knelt  in  the  darkness, 


Z72      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

and  all  prayed  together.  The  report  spread  through 
the  village  that  Christians  had  sought  shelter  there, 
and,  fearing  to  involve  their  host  in  trouble,  Mrs. 
Chang  and  her  niece  left  very  early  in  the  morning. 
Soon  they  came  to  a  river.  Mrs.  Chang  was  too  weak 
and  weary  to  stem  the  current,  so  her  niece  carried  her 
over.  Then  they  lost  all  sense  of  direction,  and  wan- 
dered aimlessly  until  a  man  found  them,  and,  with 
fair  pretenses  and  promises,  persuaded  them  to  go  to 
his  house  and  occupy  some  empty  rooms.  When  they 
reached  the  house  he  questioned,  then  threatened  them, 
taking  every  cent  which  they  possessed,  and  the  next 
morning,  before  it  was  light,  he  forced  them  to  leave. 
In  their  perplexity  they  turned  toward  Pao  Ting  Fu, 
a  friend  who  happened  to  meet  them  acting  as  their 
guide.  It  was  dark  when  they  reached  the  west  sub- 
urb, and  sank  down  exhausted  in  the  garden  of  a 
neighbor.  Mrs.  Chang's  feet  were  swollen  with  three 
days  of  constant  walking  over  rough  roads  and  fields. 
She  said  to  her  niece :  'Xeave  me,  and  flee  alone ;  do  n't 
let  me  be  the  cause  of  your  death.  My  time  to  die 
has  come ;  I  can  not  walk  another  step."  Mrs.  Chang's 
last  night  on  earth  was  spent  in  the  garden  alone. 
Wednesday  morning,  as  she  was  trying  to  crawl  out 
to  find  food,  the  Boxers  found  her,  carried  her  to  a 
village  not  far  away,  and  there  many  hands  rained 
sword-blows  upon  the  defenseless  body  as  it  lay  by 
the  roadside,  until  it  was  literally  minced.  No  one 
dared  to  bury  the  poor  remains,  and  when,  long 
months  after,  her  sons  searched  for  her  body,  they 
found  only  a  skull. 

Tl-TO^  SON  O^  PASTOR  MKNG 

In  Chapter  IV  is  recorded  the  martyrdom  of  Pas- 
tor Meng.    Here  we  continue  the  story  of  his  thirteen- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      Z72> 

year-old  son,  who  was  sent  away  with  the  pathetic 
words,  *'I  want  one  member  of  my  family  left  to  take 
up  the  work  after  I  am  gone." 

There  was  no  mother  to  bid  Ti-to  farewell.  An  inva- 
lid for  many  years,  she  had  entered  into  rest  a  few 
months  before  the  Boxers  set  up  their  altar  in  Pao  Ting- 
Fu.  He  looked  for  the  last  time  into  the  faces  of  two 
brothers  and  a  sister,  then  just  before  the  dawn  of  the 
day  when  his  noble  father  was  seized  by  the  Boxers, 
Ti-to  started  on  his  wanderings  with  his  father's  friend, 
Mr.  T'ien.  Determined  that  not  one  member  of  the 
family  should  be  left,  the  Boxers  searched  for  him  in 
all  directions;  but  ]\Ir.  T'ien  had  taken  Ti-to  to  the 
home  of  a  relative  only  a  few  miles  from  Pao  Ting 
Fu,  and  they  escaped  detection.  This  relative  feared 
to  harbor  them  more  than  two  or  three  days ;  so  they 
turned  their  faces  northward,  where  a  low  range  of 
Sierra-like  mountains  was  outlined  against  the  blue 
sky.  Seventeen  miles  from  Pao  Ting  Fu,  and  not  far 
from  the  home  of  an  uncle  of  Mr.  T'ien's,  they  found 
a  little  cave  in  the  mountain-side,  not  high  enough  to 
allow  them  to  stand  upright.  Here  they  crouched  for 
twenty  days.  The  uncle  took  them  a  little  food,  but 
to  get  water  they  were  obliged  to  go  three  miles  to  a 
mountain  village,  stealing  up  to  a  well  under  cover 
of  darkness.  In  that  dark  cave  hunger  and  thirst  were 
their  constant  companions,  and  the  howling  of  wolves 
at  night  made  their  mountain  solitude  fearsome. 

Ti-to  had  lived  five  days  in  this  retreat  when  word 
was  brought  to  him  that  father,  brothers,  sister,  his 
aunt,  his  cousins,  and  all  of  the  missionaries  in  Pao 
Ting  Fu  belonging  to  three  missions,  had  been  cruelly 
massacred,  and  that  churches,  schools,  homes,  were 
all  masses  of  charred  ruins.  O,  little  lad  in  that  lonely, 
grewsome  cave,  hungry,  thirsty,  hunted  like  a  wild 


374      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

beast!  what  wonderful  trust  in  the  Heavenly  Father 
kept  you  from  giving  way  to  despair? 

After  twenty  days  of  cave-life,  Mr.  T'ien's  uncle 
sent  them  warning  that  Boxers  were  on  their  track, 
and  they  must  leave  their  mountain  refuge  immediately. 
Then  began  long,  weary  wanderings  toward  the  south- 
west over  mountain  roads,  their  plan  being  to  go  into 
Shansi.  When  they  had  traveled  about  a  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  they  were  robbed  of  every  cent  they 
possessed.  They  were  advancing  into  a  famine- 
stricken  region,  into  that  province  whose  soil  was 
already  stained  with  the  blood  of  scores  of  mis- 
sionaries and  thousands  of  native  Christians.  "We 
might  better  turn  back,"  they  reasoned,  ''and  die  with 
our  own  people.  Let  up  go  about  the  towns  and  villages 
where  Christians  lived,  and  see  if  any  of  them  have 
escaped."  Retracing  their  steps  and  going  to  some  vil- 
lages where  there  had  once  been  chapels,  schools,  and 
happy  Christian  homes,  they  found  only  deserted 
ruins.  A  few  Christians  had  been  protected  by  influ- 
ential heathen  relatives,  and,  by  paying  a  heavy  fine 
to  the  Boxers,  had  saved  their  property  from  destruc- 
tion. But  even  these  did  not  dare  shelter  our  fugitives 
long,  and  dangers  awaited  them  on  every  side.  One 
day  in  their  wanderings  they  had  just  passed  the  vil- 
lage of  Chang  Ma,  about  twenty-two  miles  south  of 
Pao  Ting  Fu,  when  a  band  of  Boxers,  some  armed  with 
rifles,  some  brandishing  great  swords,  rushed  after 
them  shouting,  "Kill !  kill !  kill  the  erh  mao-tzu !" 

Escape  was  impossible.  Before  this  howling  horde 
had  overtaken  them,  a  man  who  was  standing  near 
them  asked  Ti-to,  "Are  you  a  Christian?"  "Yes," 
the  boy  replied.  "My  father  and  mother  were  Chris- 
tians, and  from  a  little  child  I  have  believed  in  Jesus." 

The  Boxers  closed  in  about  them.     Mr.  T'ien  was 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      375 

securely  bound,  hand  and  foot.  Ti-to  was  led  by  his 
queue,  and  soon  they  were  back  by  the  Boxer  altar 
in  the  villcge.  When  the  cruel  knives  were  first  waved 
in  his  face,  and  bloodthirsty  shouts  first  rang  in  his 
ears,  a  thrill  of  fear  chilled  Ti-to's  heart ;  but  it  passed 
as  quickly  as  it  came,  and  as  he  was  dragged  toward 
the  altar  it  seemed  as  if  some  soft,  low  voice  kept  sing- 
ing in  his  ear  the  hymn,  "I  'm  not  ashamed  to  own  my 
Lord,"  and  all  fear  vanished. 

At  the  Boxer  altar  Mr.  T'ien  spoke  no  word  for 
himself,  but  pleaded  most  earnestly  for  the  little  charge 
committed  to  his  care,  telling  how  all  his  relatives 
had  been  murdered,  and  begging  them  to  spare  his  life. 
Perhaps  it  was  those  earnest,  unselfish  words,  per- 
haps it  was  the  boy's  fearless  mien  and  winsome  face, 
that  moved  the  crowd,  for  one  of  the  village  Boxers 
stepped  forward,  saying:  *'I  adopt  this  boy  as  my  son. 
Let  no  one  touch  him.  I  stand  security  for  his  good 
behavior." 

Twenty  of  his  neighbors,  though  themselves  Box- 
ers, joined  him  in  this  guarantee.  So  Ti-to  was 
snatched  back,  as  it  were,  from  the  very  jaws  of  death. 
And  his  noble  friend,  Mr.  T'ien,  saved  himself  in  sav- 
ing the  boy ;  for  the  Boxers  released  him,  bidding  him 
fly  immediately,  as  they  could  not  protect  him  from 
other  bands. 

Ti-to's  deliverer  was  one  of  three  bachelor  brothers, 
all  notorious  bullies,  the  terror  of  the  region.  But  it 
was  evident  that  Mr.  Chang's  heart  was  completely 
won  by  the  boy.  For  three  months  he  kept  him  in  his 
home,  tenderly  providing  for  every  want.  Such  was 
the  terror  which  Mr.  Chang  inspired  in  the  village 
that  not  even  a  child  dared  ask  Ti-to  whether  he  be- 
longed to  the  hated  Christian  sect.  Let  Ti-to  tell  the 
story  of  those  days  in  his  own  words : 


376      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

*'0f  course,  I  could  not  pray  openly.  But  some- 
times, when  my  adopted  father  was  away  with  other 
Boxers  on  their  raids,  I  would  shut  the  door  tight  and 
kneel  in  prayer.  Then  every  evening,  when  the  sun 
went  down  I  would  turn  my  face  toward  the  west, 
and  in  my  heart  repeat  the  hymn: 

'Abide  with  me ;  fast  falls  the  eventide, 
The  darkness  deepens ;  Lord,  with  me  abide ; 
When  other  helpers  fail,  and  comforts  flee, 
Help  of  the  helpless,  O !  abide  with  me !' 

"But  finally  my  adopted  father  noticed  this,  and 
asked :  'What  do  you  mean  by  turning  your  face  to- 
ward the  sunset  every  night  ?'  and  after  this  I  did  n't 
dare  do  it  any  more. 

"Mr.  Chang  was  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  when  my  father 
was  killed,  and  told  me  how  they  stabbed  and  tortured 
him.  I  supposed  that  my  uncle  and  his  wife,  who  had 
gone  to  T'ungchou,  had  been  killed,  too,  and  all  the 
missionaries  in  China.  But  I  knew  that  the  people  in 
America  would  send  out  more  missionaries,  and  I 
thought  how  happy  I  would  be  some  time  in  the  future 
when  I  could  go  into  a  chapel  again  and  hear  them 
preach." 

But  Ti-to  had  not  so  long  to  wait  for  his  day  of 
joy.  In  October  expeditions  of  British^  German, 
French,  and  Italian  soldiers  from  Peking  and  Tientsin 
arrived  at  Pao  Ting  Fu,  and  the  Boxer  hordes  scat- 
tered at  their  coming.  With  the  Tientsin  expedition 
marched  the  younger  Pastor  Meng,  who  had  started 
back  from  T'ungchou  with  his  family  after  mission 
meeting,  but  only  reached  T'ientsin  in  time  to  share 
the  terrors  of  the  siege  there,  then  to  wait  through  the 
long  months  until  this  expedition  started.  When  he 
reached  Pao  Ting  Fu  he  heard  the  story  of  Ti-to,  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      ZJJ 

rejoiced  that  one  dear  one  had  escaped  from  that  fear- 
ful slaughter.  Soon  to  the  brave  boy  living  with  the 
Boxers  came  the  glad  tidings  that  his  uncle  was  stil: 
living,  and  had  sent  for  him  to  come  home.  Mr.  Chang 
loved  the  boy  so  deeply  that  he  could  but  rejoice  with 
him,  sad  though  he  felt  at  the  thought  of  parting  with 
him.  Fearful  of  some  treachery,  or  of  harm  coining 
to  Ti-to,  he  went  with  him  to  Pao  Ting  Fu,  then  re- 
turned to  the  village  home  from  which  the  sunshine 
had  departed. 

That  winter  and  spring  Ti-to  studied  in  the  Congre- 
gational academy,  temporarily  located  in  Peking:  ''I 
am  not  sad  or  lonely,"  he  said.  "How  could  I  have 
thought,  a  few  months  ago,  that  I  would  so  soon  be  with 
our  missionary  friends ;  that  I  would  have  a  chance  to 
study;  that  I  could  go  to  church  every  Sunday  with 
hundreds  of  God's  people  who  had  escaped  from  the 
Boxers?    God  had  been  very  good  to  me." 

Ti-to  is  now  studying  in  Japan.  Surely  for  this 
boy,  so  wonderfully  preserved  amid  dangers  seen  and 
unseen,  with  the  memory  of  his  father's  parting  words, 
"If  we  are  all  killed,  who  will  preach  Jesus  to  these  poor 
people?"  God  has  some  work  to  do.  Consecrated 
by  his  father's  martyrdom,  kept  by  the  power  of  prayer, 
we  shall  watch  with  interest  the  unfolding  of  this 
beautiful  life. 

MRS.    KAO  AND  JESSICA 

It  was  In  the  winter  of  1887  that  a  sweet- faced 
young  woman  with  a  manner  of  great  refinement  was 
baptized  at  Pao  Ting  Fu.  Christianity  meant  some- 
thing to  her.  It  meant  ostracism  from  the  circle  in 
which  she  had  moved,  but  it  meant  also  great  joy 
and  peace.  It  was  written  on  her  face  that  Sabbath 
morning.     Her   husband   also   was   a   Christian,   and 


378      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

their  only  child,  a  little  adopted  daughter,  at  once  began 
studying  in  a  Christian  school. 

Mrs.  Kao  had  an  unusually  bright  mind,  and  soon 
she  could  read  Christian  books  readily.  She  also 
showed  rare  gifts  in  telling  the  gospel  truths  to  others, 
while  her  natural  attractiveness  and  charm  of  manner 
helped  her  to  win  hearts.  ''What  a  fine  Bible-woman 
Mrs.  Kao  would  make,"  one  of  the  missionaries  said 
long  years  ago,  *'if  only  she  was  n't  so  timid,  so  afraid 
of  ridicule!"  But  the  love  of  God  and  pity  for  her 
suffering  sisters  soon  overcame  this  natural  shrinking, 
and  for  many  years  Mrs.  Kao  did  the  work  of  a  Bible- 
woman  in  the  city  of  Pao  Ting  Fu,  talking  to  the  wo- 
men who  came  to  the  dispensary  clinics,  and  visiting 
homes  wherever  she  could  gain  access  to  them. 

Jessica  also  developed  into  a  girl  of  strong  charac- 
ter and  sweet  winsomeness,  and  the  love  and  sympa- 
thy between  mother  and  daughter  was  rarely  beauti- 
ful. Jessica  graduated  from  the  Bridgman  School  in 
Peking  in  February,  1900,  then  came  a  few  months  of 
quiet  rest  at  home.  Soon  the  outward  quiet  was  dis- 
turbed, and  on  the  night  of  June  28th,  Mr.  Kao,  who 
was  connected  with  a  drugstore  in  the  city,  came  home 
with  the  alarming  tidings  that  Pastor  Meng  had  been 
seized  by  Boxers. 

''And  who  knows  how  soon  our  time  will  come?" 
he  said  sadly. 

"Watch  and  pray,  for  ye  know  not  the  hour."  Mrs. 
Kao  and  Jessica  must  have  watched  and  prayed  that 
night ;  for,  like  the  One  who  struggled  in  Gethsemane, 
they  walked  with  calm  faces  a  few  hours  later  to  meet 
their  foes.  Had  Mr.  Kao  known  how  soon  that  hour 
would  come,  he  would  not  have  left  his  wife  and 
daughter  alone  that  next  morning.  He  had  not  been 
gone  long  when  there  came  an  angry  knocking  at  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      379 

gate,  with  shouts  of  "Kill !  kill !"  and  as  the  gate  burst 
open,  loud  voices  called  out,  "Where  are  the  Kaos?" 
Frightened  women  and  children  living  in  the  quad- 
rangled  gathered  trembling  at  the  opposite  corner  of  the 
yard,  but  Mrs.  Kao  stepped  fearlessly  to  her  door. 
*'We  are  the  Kaos,"  she  said  in  a  clear  voice;  "these 
other  families  are  not  Christians.  Please  permit  my 
daughter  and  myself  to  put  on  our  long  garments  and 
hair  ornaments,  then  we  will  go  with  you."  Soon  two 
calm-faced  women  were  standing  in  the  courtyard; 
cruel  swords  were  brandished  on  all  sides;  rough 
hands  were  outstretched  to  drag  them  onto  the 
street.  "Take  and  bind  them,"  called  out  the  Boxer 
leader.  Gently  Mrs.  Kao  remonstrated:  "We  are  wo- 
men, why  bind  us?  We  are  believers  in  the  Lord;  if 
we  promise  not  to  run,  we  surely  will  not  do  it." 

"Bind  them  tightly  lest  they  escape,"  came  the  loud 
order,  and,  with  thumbs  tied  together  behind  their 
backs,  the  women  were  driven  from  their  home. 

At  the  gateway  Mrs.  Kao  halted  for  a  moment,  and, 
facing  the  terrified  women  in  the  court,  she  said:  "Sis- 
ters, I  have  been  the  cause  of  great  fear  coming  to  you 
to-day.  Farewell.  If  I  am  permitted  to  see  you 
again,  I  shall  rejoice;  if  not,  I  hope  that  we  may  meet 
in  heaven.  I  should  be  so  glad  if  you  all  believed  in 
esus. 

The  pale-faced  girl  standing  by  her  mother's  side 
also  spoke  her  farewells.  Then  out  into  the  hot,  dusty 
street,  thronged  with  rude,  jostling  crowds  of  men  and 
boys,  the  women  were  pushed  by  their  captors.  "Aha ! 
See  the  followers  of  the  foreign  devils  whom  the  Box- 
ers have  captured !"  "They  '11  soon  be  done  for." 
"Isn't  that  Mrs.  Kao,  the  woman-preacher?"  "Yes, 
and  that  pretty  girl  must  be  her  daughter, — the  one 
who  has  been  studying   for  years  with  the   foreign 


38o      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

devils  in  Peking."  "What  a  pity  !"  "Hush !  do  n't  let 
the  Boxers  hear  you,  or  they  '11  nab  you,  too." 

Neither  of  the  women  was  strong,  and  Mrs.  Kao's 
feet  had  been  crippled  by  tight  binding  in  her  girlhood, 
so  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  walk  very  fast.  At 
nearly  every  step  the  Boxers  tried  to  hasten  their  poor 
captive  by  striking  their  backs  with  the  blunt  edge  of 
their  swords.  Jessica  pleaded,  "My  mother's  feet  are 
small,  and  it  is  n't  easy  for  her  to  walk.  Do  n't  hurry 
her  so ;"  but  the  girl's  entreaty  fell  on  deaf  ears. 

Nearly  a  mile  away  was  a  Boxer  temple,  and  soon 
Mrs.  Kao  and  Jessica  stood  in  its  court-yard,  the  blaz- 
ing sun  beating  down  on  their  uncovered  heads.  Mrs. 
Kao  turned  to  the  Boxers  with  the  earnest  plea,  "If 
you  intend  to  kill  us,  do  it  now ;  do  n't  heap  repeated 
insult  and  torture  on  us."  Then  looking  in  her  daugh- 
ter's face,  she  asked,  "Are  you  afraid?"  "Mother," 
replied  Jessica,  "Jesus  is  with  you  and  me;  is  there 
anything  to  fear?"  "Let  us  pray  together,"  said  the 
mother;  and,  with  arms  still  tied  behind  them,  they 
knelt  down  in  the  midst  of  their  clamorous,  crowding 
persecutors. 

The  next  scene  is  in  a  small  room  in  this  same 
temple,  where  for  two  days  they  were  imprisoned  to- 
gether. Many  were  the  words  of  counsel  which  the 
mother  had  spoken  to  the  young  girl ;  precious  was  the 
comfort  which  had  come  to  both  as,  time  after  time, 
they  knelt  in  prayer.  Once  when  they  were  praying 
the  mother  started  up  with  face  all  aglow.  "Jessica, 
I  see  Jesus  has  come;  do  you  see  him?"  "Mother," 
said  the  girl,  "I  believe  that  Jesus  is  always  with  those 
who  love  him." 

The  second  night  which  they  spent  in  their  prison, 
the  northern  sky  was  bright  with  flames  from  the  Pres- 
byterian mission,  where  eight  Americans,  men,  women, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS      381 

and  children,  had  ascended  to  glory  in  a  chariot  of  fire. 
The  next  morning  was  Sunday,  the  first  day  in  July. 
Mrs.  Kao's  three  loved  missionaries  of  the  Congrega- 
tional mission  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Boxers,  and 
at  nine  that  same  fateful  morning  cruel  hands 
separated  the  mother  and  her  child.  Mrs.  Kao, 
like  her  Master,  received  a  mock  trial,  and  now, 
like  him,  she  was  led  outside  the  gate  to  that 
spot  in  the  west  suburb  where  common  crimi- 
nals are  beheaded.  In  the  midst  of  the  pushing, 
scoffing  crowd,  on  this  Via  Crucis,  perhaps  these  words 
were  in  the  woman's  heart,  "Let  us  go  forth,  therefore, 
unto  him  without  the  camp,  bearing  his  reproach." 
Perhaps  the  vision-seeing  eyes  looked  not  on  the  pas- 
sion-distorted faces,  the  bloodstained  swords,  but  on  a 
form  bearing  a  cross,  and  a  face  sweet  with  divine 
compassion.  So  she  was  strengthened  for  the  last 
agony. 

The  Boxers  had  mocked  Mrs.  Kao  as  they  led  her 
from  the  temple  by  saying  that  they  were  taking  her 
to  her  mother's  home.  As  they  passed  through  the 
west  gate,  and  turned  toward  the  execution-ground, 
they  said  with  a  sneer,  "This  is  your  home."  Mrs. 
Kao  entreated,  "Kill  me  in  some  secluded  spot,  that 
my  body  may  not  lie  exposed  on  the  street,  causing 
fear  and  horror  to  all  who  pass."  "Do  as  she  requests," 
said  the  Boxer  leader.  Mrs.  Kao  continued  her  sup- 
plications to  the  leader.  "Great  teacher-brother,  I  am 
only  a  condemned  criminal,  but  I  ask  of  you  one  favor. 
Please  give  me  a  little  time  to  pray  to  my  Heavenly 
Father."  "We  '11  give  you  a  moment,"  they  said, 
moved  by  some  strange  compassion.  Kneeling  in  their 
midst  she  prayed,  "Father,  forgive  these  men ;  they 
don't  understand  what  they  are  doing;"  then  followed 
brief  petitions  for  her  daughter,  her  husband,  and  her- 


382      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

self,  and  with  a  face  radiant  with  peace,  Mrs.  Kao  rose 
to  her  feet. 

For  months  a  headless  body,  wrapped  in  a  straw 
mat  lay  in  a  shallow  grave  by  the  execution-grounds. 
Then  loving  hands  placed  it  in  a  coffin,  and  in  a  new 
God's  Acre  close  by  the  ruins  of  the  mission,  where 
lie  martyrs  of  three  nations,  there  is  a  simple  slab 
marked  with  Mrs.  Kao's  name.  But  the  brave  soul 
which  entered  the  homeland  through  the  gate  of  pain 
that  Sabbath  morning  heeded  neither  the  jeers  of  the 
mob  nor  the  grand  pageant  when  her  mangled  form 
was  laid  to  rest.  Her  eyes  had  seen  the  King  in  his 
beauty. 

And  what  of  Jessica  ?  For  some  strange  reason  she 
and  two  schoolgirls  were  taken  to  a  government  orphan 
asylum  in  the  city,  in  charge  of  an  official  and  his 
wife,  the  Boxers  keeping  a  watchful  eye  on  the  place. 
The  three  Christian  girls  soon  won  the  heart  of  the 
official's  wife,  the  T'ai-t'ai^  and  she  did  everything  in 
her  power  to  mitigate  their  lot,  treating  them  like  her 
own  children,  and  constantly  praising  them  to  her  hus- 
band. Though  grieving  for  their  martyred  parents, 
these  girls  committed  their  trust  entirely  to  the  Lord, 
and  their  hearts  were  fearless  and  peaceful..  Once  they 
had  a  long  conversation  with  the  official  in  charge,  and 
explained  to  him  that  the  ''Jesus  Church"  meant  only 
good  to  the  people,  and  that  the  stories  about  their 
digging  out  eyes  and  poisoning  wells  were  all  malicious 
lies. 

A  trunk  containing  Jessica's  clothing  and  jewelry 
had  been  taken  to  the  orphan  asylum,  and  its  value  ex- 
cited the  cupidity  of  some  of  the  attendants.  They  said, 
''If  these  girls  are  killed,  we  can  get  all  of  their  cloth- 
ing." So  both  in  the  asylum  and  at  Boxer  headquar- 
ters, they  kept  tiling  the  following  story :  "Those  Jesus 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      383 

Church  girls,  whom  the  Boxers  have  so  graciously 
spared,  should  be  grateful,  obedient,  and  quiet ;  but  on 
the  contrary  Jessica  says  she  do  n't  want  to  live  on  this 
earth  any  more,  but  wants  to  go  to  her  mother.  What 
base  ingratitude  to  us  !  Moreover,  even  in  their  present 
dangerous  plight,  they  still  sing  and  pray  and  explain 
the  doctrines  of  their  Christian  books,  having  not  the 
least  repentance  in  their  hearts."  The  enraged  Boxers 
said,  "Since  they  want  to  die,  let  them  come  out,  auvl 
still  die  under  the  edge  of  the  sword." 

Hearing  of  the  danger  which  threatened  the  girls, 
the  T'ai-t'ai  went  to  her  husband,  and  pleaded  with  tears 
for  them,  saying  that  this  was  the  plot  of  wicked  men. 
"From  the  first  day  they  came,  there  has  not  been  a 
single  wrong  word  or  act."  Because  of  the  influence 
of  this  ofiicial's  wife,  they  were  saved  from  the  hands 
of  the  Boxers ;  but  the  officials  consulted  and  decided 
to  transfer  them  to  another  asylum  in  the  city,  called 
"The  Associated  Charities." 

It  was  July  28th  when  the  girls  went  to  their  new 
prison.  There  they  found  three  Catholic  girls,  accom- 
panied by  a  woman,  and  the  seven  were  locked  into  a 
gloomy  little  court  by  themselves,  where  they  had  far 
less  of  freedom  and  comfort  than  before.  But  in  their 
dark  cell  there  were  no  spies  to  watch  them,  and  com- 
fort came  as  they  sang  and  prayed  together. 

It  was  the  12th  of  October,  three  months  and  a  half 
after  they  were  imprisoned.  The  allies  had  come  to 
Pao  Ting  Fu,  the  Boxers  had  fled,  the  prison  doors 
were  open,  and  a  man  worn  with  travel  and  suffering 
came  to  the  asylum.  It  was  Mr.  Kao,  and  a  fresh  pang 
smote  his  heart  as  he  saw  Jessica's  thin,  pale  face, 
showing  so  plainly  the  marks  of  disease  and  grief. 
"Mother  was  killed  by  the  Boxers,"  were  the  girl's 
first  words;  then  she  listened  while  her  father  told  of 


384      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

his  wanderings  to  distant  places,  and  of  his  many 
deliverances. 

Mr.  Kao  took  Jessica  to  live  in  a  room  connected 
with  his  store.  She  said :  "Father,  do  n't  grieve  for 
mother.  I  will  not  marry,  but  will  stay  here  and  care 
for  you,  and  try  to  do  some  work  for  the  Lord,  who 
has  spared  my  life." 

But  long  grief  and  suffering  had  told  too  sorely 
on  the  frail  body  of  the  girl  of  nineteen,  and  day  by 
day  she  drooped.  Day  and  night  her  father  cared  for 
her  most  lovingly ;  but  neither  medicine  nor  care 
availed,  and  after  the  father  and  daughter  had  spent 
over  a  month  together,  another  day  of  separation  came. 
When  the  end  was  near,  she  called  her  father  to  her 
side,  and  said:  '*Jesus  has  come  for  me,  and  I  am 
ready.  The  last  commands  which  my  mother  gave  me, 
I  have  kept.  Now  I  am  going  before  you  to  see  my 
mother's  face.  Father,  the  one  important  thing  is,  that 
you  should  hold  fast  the  holy  truth  of  God,  and  go,  as 
I  am  going,  to  the  heavenly  home."  Then  with  ra- 
diant face,  she  said,  ''Father,  I  see  my  mother,"  and  a 
few  moments  later,  peacefully  and  quietly,  the  spirit 
took  its  flight. 

the;  preservation  of  a  bible 

This  Bible  had  been  given  to  an  old  woman  by  Mrs. 
Tu,  the  Bible-woman.  When  the  trouble  came,  the 
old  woman,  who  was  the  only  Church  member  in  the 
family,  was  obliged  to  leave  her  home  and  hide  away. 
Her  daughter-in-law  said  to  herself,  ''That  book  must 
be  saved  at  any  cost ;  it  will  be  wanted  some  day."  She 
took  it  in  the  night  and  buried  it  in  the  garden.  After 
the  rains  came  she  dug  it  up  and  found  it  wet  through. 
She  dared  not  leave  it  around  where  any  one  could 
see  it,  but  at  night  she  spent  many  hours  in  wiping  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      385 

pressing  the  leaves.  When  all  alone  in  the  daytime 
she  would  put  it  in  the  sun  and  stand  guard  at  the  door. 
In  the  night,  after  her  husband  had  gone  to  sleep,  she 
would  rise  and  o])en  the  book  to  dry.  After  the  trouble 
was  over,  and  the  people  had  returned  to  their  homes 
in  peace,  this  was  found  to  be  the  only  Bible  in  that 
region,  and  for  months  it  was  the  joy  and  comfort  of 
many. 

fate;  of  two  Presbyterian  helpers 

Lu  Shang  Chi  and  T'ien  Pao  Hsiang,  with  the 
daughter  of  the  one  and  her  three  sons,  and  the  wife 
of  the  other,  took  refuge  in  the  mountains  and  were 
living  in  a  cave.  The  Boxers  of  a  very  disreputable 
village  on  the  plain  heard  of  it,  but  knew  not  how 
many  Christians  there  might  be,,  nor  whether  they  were 
armed  or  not.  These  Boxers  arranged  a  hunt.  Fully 
one  thousand  people,  armed  with  spears  and  cutlasses 
and  swords,  spread  themselves  over  the  mountain,  and 
literally  searched  it  as  lost  children  are  searched  for. 
The  refugees,  of  course,  were  finally  discovered,  and, 
notwithstanding  all  entreaties,  were  killed  one  by  one, 
the  children  being  killed  last,  and  the  bodies  all  rolled 
down  the  declivity,  a  distance  of  about  twenty  feet. 
Their  bodies  lay  there  for  some  days  before  any  one 
dared  to  move  them ;  and  then  a  poor  mountaineer 
gathered  them  together,  and  laid  over  them  many 
slabs  of  slate,  but  no  earth.  When,  after  the  capture 
of  Pao  Ting  Fu,  Mr.  Lowrie  sent  a  man  to  make  in- 
quiries, he  reported  that  the  mountaineer  who  was  said 
to  have  buried  them  would  not  acknowledge  it,  lest 
he  might  be  suspected  of  complicity  in  the  crime.  The 
son  of  T'ien  Pao  Hsiang  was  then  sent  to  the  official  at 
I  Chou  to  ask  him  to  make  inquiries.  The  result  was 
that  the  mountaineer  led  the  party  to  the  place  where 

25 


386      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  remains  were  lying  beneath  the  slabs  of  slate.  There 
were  not  sufficient  bones  to  make  one  complete  hu- 
frame  frame,  but  clothing  enough  remained  to  identify 
some  of  the  victims.  The  I  Chou  official  bought  seven 
coffins,  the  bones  were  distributed  among  them,  and 
buried  on  April  13th  in  the  Presbyterian  mission  com- 
pound at  Pao  Ting  Fu. 

the:  experience  oe  wang  chiu  te 

Wang  Chiu  Te,  after  seven  or  eight  years  of  train- 
ing in  the  Presbyterian  Boys'  Boarding-school  in  Pe- 
king, for  a  year  instructed  Dr.  and  Mrs.  C.  V.R.  Hodge, 
of  Pao  Ting  Fu,  in  the  Chinese  language.  He  tells 
his  own  story : 

On  June  30th,  the  Presbyterian  mission  buildings 
outside  the  north  gate  of  Pao  Ting  Fu  were  burned, 
and  the  people  there  were  killed,  the  missionaries  and 
a  number  of  Church  members  together.  I  was  then 
at  the  home  of  my  classmate,  Wang  Tien  Ch'en,  ten 
miles  away.  When  we  heard  the  news,  we  were  in 
despair.  There  was  no  place  to  which  to  escape.  Some 
one  said.  *'To  the  west  there  is  a  mountain  called  Wolf 
Mountain,  very  high,  with  only  one  road  of  ascent. 
On  the  top  is  a  temple,  and  water.  There  you  might 
hide."  So  we  packed  up  our  things.  Two  Church 
members  went  with  us,  and  two  men  showed  us  the 
way,  carrying  rice,  flour,  and  a  kettle.  When  we  had 
gone  seven  miles  it  began  to  rain,  and  rained  all  night. 
The  next  day  it  still  rained.  By  afternoon  we  had  gone 
twenty  miles  and  reached  a  mountain  ridge,  in  a  little 
temple,  on  the  top  of  which  we  rested.  The  two  men 
who  were  conducting  us  went  to  a  small  village  to  in- 
quire whether  there  were  any  Boxers  there.  They 
learned  that  the  Boxers  were  very  numerous,  and  that 
if  any  one  came  along  speaking  other  than  the  Boxer 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      387 

dialect,  the  men  of  the  village  would  kill  him.  So 
Wang  Tien  Ch'en  and  I  dared  not  say  a  word.  For 
four  hours  we  debated  as  to  whether  we  could  live 
there,  but  concluded  that  we  would  have  to  retrace  our 
steps.  So  we  started  back.  When  we  were  about  ten 
miles  from  Chia  Chuang,  my  friend's  home,  the  sun 
went  down,  and  it  began  to  rain  again.  On  the  level 
the  water  was  a  foot  or  two  deep ;  every  stitch  of 
our  clothing  was  wet ;  the  mountain  road  was  slip- 
pery and  very  hard  to  travel.  A  moment  of  careless- 
ness and  one  would  fall  into  the  ravine.  Weeping  as 
we  went,  we  traveled  all  night,  and  returned  to  Chia 
Chuang.  The  second  day  there  came  men  from  Yao 
Chuang,  who  surrounded  the  house,  intending  to  bind 
us  and  turn  us  over  to  the  Boxers.  Fortunately  some 
of  the  villagers  pleaded  for  us,  so  that  they  did  not 
bind  us,  but  said  they  would  go  and  summon  the  Box- 
ers to  kill  us.  So  we  hid  in  the  home  of  another  man. 
At  three  o'clock,  when  it  had  just  stopped  raining,  a 
great  many  men  came  running  from  the  east,  saying 
that  foreign  soldiers  had  come.  When  we  heard  that, 
we  rejoiced  greatly,  and  ran  after  the  crowd.  We 
ran  for  five  miles  and  came  to  a  village  just  at  dark. 
The  men  of  the  village  said  they  would  let  no  one 
enter  whom  they  did  not  know.  At  the  end  of  the 
street  was  a  gate,  and  outside  of  it  stood  men  exam- 
ining every  one.  If  there  were  any  different  dialects, 
or  any  who  had  joined  the  Church,  they  killed  them. 
If  friends  came,  they  leaped  the  wall  and  entered. 
The  sister-in-law  of  a  Church  member  had  gone  to  this 
place  and  was  living  in  the  home  of  relatives  of  a 
neighbor.  So  we  begged  the  neighbor  of  that  Church 
member  to  speak  for  us  to  his  relative  about  permitting 
us  to  spend  a  night  in  his  home.  The  family  agreed 
to  let  us  stay.     After  this  family  had  finished  their 


388      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

evening  meal,  some  of  them  led  us  to  the  rooms  of 
the  head  of  the  house  to  retire.  As  we  were  about  to 
go  to  sleep,  people  from  Chia  Chuang  came  running 
up  who  reported  that  we  were  Christians.  The  family 
ordered  us  to  go  at  once.  We  had  scarcely  leaped  out- 
side the  wall  when  there  came  men  of  the  village 
searching  for  us.  We  just  missed  by  a  few  minutes 
being  seized  by  them.  Two  men  with  a  gun  escorted 
us  out  of  the  village,  and  directed  us  to  follow  the 
great  road.  We  did  not  return  to  Chia  Chuang,  but 
stopped  in  the  house  of  a  friend.  This  friend  said, 
•'Yesterday,  after  you  had  run  away,  the  men  of  Yao 
Chuang  came  again  with  foreign  guns  and  swords 
searching  for  you.  You  had  better  get  away  promptly, 
for  they  said  they  would  come  again  to-day  to  look 
for  you."  So  we  hastily  ate  a  little  food  and  discussed 
plans  for  flight.  We  decided  that  our  best  plan  would 
be  to  pretend  that  we  were  beggars.  So  we  begged 
our  friend  to  give  us  some  ragged  clothing.  He  found 
some  for  us,  and  a  couple  of  earthen  jars.  We  put  on 
the  clothes,  took  sticks  in  our  hands,  and  carrying  the 
jars  ran  to  a  sorghum-field  and  curled  up  there.  There 
we  wept  awhile,  saying  to  one  another,  "There  is  no 
help  for  us  in  this  place;  we  can  not  escape  destruc- 
tion ;  perhaps  the  best  way  will  be  for  each  one  to  seek 
safety  for  himself."  So  we  separated,  Tien  Ch'en 
going  toward  Pao  Ting  Fu,  and  I  making  for  Peking. 
There  were  Boxers  in  every  village,  so  that  I  dared  not 
enter.    At  night  I  slept  in  the  open  fields. 

I  reached  Peking  July  6th,  just  as  the  sun  went 
down,  and  found  that  there  were  Boxers  in  every 
street  and  lane,  keeping  strict  watch.  I  thought  that 
I  must  lodge  in  an  inn,  as  there  was  no  other  place  to 
sleep,  the  Boxers  being  everywhere  on  the  lookout. 
So  I  went  to  an  inn,  and  the  innkeeper  said,  "You 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      389 

come  to  lodge  in  this  inn ;  have  you  a  surety  ?"  I  re- 
pUed,  **I  have  none."  He  said,  "If  you  have  no  surety, 
you  must  be  an  erh  mao-tzu,  one  of  those  who  scatter 
poison  and  smear  blood."  I  replied,  "I  am  not."  He 
said,  "You  look  very  nuich  like  one."  Then  he  reviled 
me,  and  ordered  me  to  get  out  at  once,  saying,  "My 
inn  does  not  lodge  your  kind  of  men."  As  he  was 
reviling  me,  his  son  went  in  search  of  Boxers.  I  had 
not  gone  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  from 
the  door  when  the  Boxers  came  in  pursuit.  I  ran  some 
distance,  while  they  pursued  and  yelled,  "Cut  him 
down !"  I  thought  that  this  time  there  was  no  escape, 
and  I  must  die.  Beside  the  road  was  some  cultivated 
land  with  a  little  clump  of  sorghum  growing.  I  lay 
down  there.  I  was  not  to  die  this  time.  North  of  this 
road  was  another,  and  they  went  by  that  road  in  pur- 
suit of  me,  keeping  on  until  eleven  o'clock,  and  then 
returning.  They  came  back  by  the  southern  road,  but 
did  not  see  me.  At  daylight  I  reached  the  suburb  at 
the  Ch'i  Hua  Gate,  and  then  followed  the  stone  road 
toward  my  home,  thirty-five  miles  to  the  east,  arriv- 
ing there  at  night.  At  a  glance  I  saw  that  the  houses 
were  all  burned,  and  the  people  were  gone,  I  knew 
not  where.  My  sadness  and  distress  it  is  impossible  to 
express.  And  I  dared  not  see  any  one.  The  men 
of  my  own  village  were  appointed  to  search  for  us  by 
night  and  give  us  over  to  the  Boxers.  So  I  passed  the 
night  in  a  sorghum-field.  By  day  I  also  dared  see  no 
one.  Hungry  and  thirsty  and  with  the  sun  beating 
down  upon  me,  my  suffering  was  inexpressible.  By 
the  evening  of  the  8th  I  could  stand  it  no  longer,  so  I 
sought  the  home  of  my  father's  elder  brother.  When 
he  saw  me,  he  said :  "Have  you  come  back  ?  We  all 
thought  you  had  been  killed."  He  also  said :  "Your 
grandfather,   mother,   two   sisters,   two  brothers   and 


390      CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS 

their  wives,  and  four  nieces  have  all  been  killed.  We 
do  not  know  whither  your  father  and  oldest  brother 
have  fled."  When  I  heard  these  tidings,  it  was  as  if 
a  knife  had  struck  to  my  heart,  and  I  was  overwhelmed. 
I  said :  "I  also  will  not  live.  Buy  me  a  little  opium  to 
eat.  I  shall  die,  and  that  will  end  it."  He  said :  ''That 
won't  do.  I  will  give  you  some  food  to  eat,  and  you 
return  to  the  sorghum-field  to  hide."  I  reasoned  with 
myself:  "If  I  take  poison  and  die  it  will  be  a  sin.  I 
would   better   return   to   the   sorghum-field." 

The  next  day  Boxers  went  along  the  edge  of  the 
field  within  thirty  or  forty  feet  of  me,  but  did  not 
see  me.  That  day  also  I  ate  nothing.  At  evening  my 
uncle  found  me,  and  brought  me  something  to  eat. 
He  said,  ''Your  oldest  brother  has  come  back,"  and  led 
me  to  meet  him.  We  looked  into  each  other's  faces. 
On  the  loth,  together  with  Mr.  Li,  a  Christian  of  the 
same  village,  I  again  hid  for  a  day  outside  of  the  vil- 
lage. The  next  day  some  learned  that  we  were  near 
the  village,  and  went  to  call  the  Boxers  to  seize  us. 
They  came,  and  when  they  were  forty  or  fifty  feet 
from  us  they  did  not  see  me,  but  saw  Mr.  Li,  and 
chased  him.  They  pursued  him  to  the  village,  but  did 
not  find  him.  That  night  we  went  to  the  Northern 
Mountains  and  hid  in  a  cave.  Later  a  friend  took  us 
to  a  place  where  we  staid  until  late  in  August,  when 
we  went  again  to  my  uncle's.  He  locked  us  up  in  a 
room,  and  we  did  not  dare  even  to  talk.  After  a  few 
days  we  were  seen  through  a  crack  in  the  door;  so 
that  evening  a  friend  led  us  to  Peking,  and  we  met 
again  with  all  the  brethren  who  had  survived  the 
summer. 

When  I  think  of  all  that  I  went  through,  I  realize 
that  all  depended  on  the  Lord's  deliverance  and  pro- 
tection.    Manv  times  I  was  snatched  from  the  very 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      391 

vcrg^c  of  death.  The  sad  part  of  it  is  that  of  my  family, 
old  and  younc^,  eleven  were  killed,  and  even  their  bones 
burned.  This  still  makes  me,  at  every  recollection, 
very  sad  of  heart. 

*•  I  fear  no  foe  with  Thee  at  hand  to  bless ; 
Ills  have  no  wcii^ht,  and  tears  no  bitterness. 
Where  is  Death's  sting,  where,  Grave,  thy  victory? 
I  triumph,  Lord,  if  thou  abide  with  me." 


CHAPTER  X 

MARTYR  DAYS  IN  SCATTERED 
LOCALITIES 

"  I  will  seek  that  which  was  lost,  and  bring  again  that  which 
was  driven  away,  and  will  bind  up  that  which  was  broken,  and 
will  strengthen  that  which  was  sick." 

In  this  chapter  are  narratives  of  experiences  in 
widely-separated  localities,  reaching  north  to  the  Mon- 
golian Plains  and  south  to  the  Yang-tse.  These 
glimpses  will  give  an  idea  of  the  widespread  devasta- 
tion, but  no  complete  history  is  attempted. 

IN   MANCHURIA 

[Liu  Fu  T'ien,  a  graduate  of  the  Presbyterian 
College  at  Teng  Chou  Fu,  Shantung,  writes  as  follows 
of  his  experiences  in  Manchuria,  where  he  had  been 
teaching  foi  two  years  before  the  Boxer  outbreak :] 

Late  in  June  ominous  rumors  became  current : 
''The  heavens  are  dry;  there  is  no  rain.  This  is  be- 
cause of  the  foreigners  and  the  Christians,  who  have 
provoked  the  wrath  of  the  gods  Hence  the  gods  have 
sent  forty-eight  myriad  divine  soldiers  to  exterminate 
them."  Boxer  drill  began ;  from  Tientsin  we  heard  of 
the  ravages  of  fire  and  sword.  Often  my  wife  asked, 
"How  can  we  escape  from  this  danger?"  and  I  would 
reply,  "Fear  not.  "We  can  only  pray  for  God  to  care 
for  us." 

On  the  2d  of  July  a  man  came  from  Moukden  to  Fa 

392 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      393 

K'u  Men  to  tell  us  that  our  church,  hospital,  and  mis- 
sionary residences  in  Moukden  had  all  been  destroyed, 
and  the  missionaries  had  ilcd  to  Newchwan,!;.  The  Ro- 
man Catholic  cathedral  hadi  also  been  attacked,  and  when 
the  first  onset  of  the  Boxers  had  been  repulsed,  the  sol- 
diers had  joined  forces  with  them  and  there  had  been 
a  terrible  slaui^hter,  two  or  three  hundred  Christians 
perishing  with  the  priests  and  nuns. 

When  we  heard  this  we  urged  our  missionary  to 
flee  at  once ;  but  he  was  determined  to  stay  with  us  for 
life  or  death.  Again  we  entreated  him,  and  he  decided 
to  go. 

That  night  I  could  not  sleep,  and,  together  with  my 
wife,  I  asked  the  Lord  whether  or  not  we  should  flee. 
After  praying  three  times  I  opened  my  Bible,  asking 
God  to  direct  me,  and  saw  Rev.  xviii,  4:  "Come  out 
of  her,  my  people,  that  ye  be  not  partakers  of  her  sins, 
that  ye  receive  not  of  her  plagues."  Thanking  God 
for  his  guidance,  I  closed  school  the  next  day,  and 
silently  prayed  that  God  would  send  some  one  to  guide 
us  to  a  place  of  refuge.  Unexpectedly  a  Church  mem- 
ber named  Wang  came  along  with  a  cart  about  ten 
o'clock,  and  I,  with  my  wife  and  little  child,  and  Elder 
Hsii  with  his  family,  also  two  schoolgirls,  started 
northward  to  Mr.  Wang's  home,  Elder  Hsii  and  I 
walking  beside  the  cart,  each  carrying  a  child  Neigh- 
bors and  others  stood  watching  our  departure,  many 
with  tears  streaming  down  their  faces. 

During  the  next  week  three  chapels  in  different 
places  sheltered  my  little  family.  Nearly  every  day 
came  word  of  the  burning  of  chapels  and  the  slaughter 
of  Christians.  The  Fa  K'u  Men  Church  was  destroyed 
only  two  days  after  we  had  left.  No  chapel  would 
furnish  safe  refuge,  and  we  sought  another  shelter.  A 
Christian  told  us  of  a  secluded  hut  of  three  rooms  near 


394      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  Mongolian  sandhills,  and,  carrying  my  child,  I 
helped  my  wife  over  the  wall,  and  secretly  by  night 
guided  by  two  Christians,  we  walked  over  the  rough 
country  to  this  hut.  The  old  farmer's  wife  had  a  kind 
hearty  and  she  consented  to  harbor  my  wife  and  child, 
while  I,  sad  and  anxious  at  the  separation,  went  back 
to  the  village.  Had  I  not  depended  upon  God's  com- 
fort, I  must  surely  have  given  way  to  despair. 

After  two  days  I  went  to  see  my  wife.  She  said: 
"I  thought  that  in  this  secluded  spot  we  might  be  safe; 
but  it  is  not  so.  A  man  came  here,  and,  learning  that 
I  am  a  Christian,  he  has  published  it  everywhere. 
Moreover,  this  old  lady's  son  has  gone  to  another  place 
to  learn  the  Boxer  rites." 

For  two  days  I  hid  in  a  ravine  near  by,  whence  I 
could  watch  the  hut  where  my  wife  and  child  were 
staying.  My  heart  was  oppressed.  I  had  not  even  a 
hat  to  shelter  me  from  the  heat ;  hunger  and  thirst  came 
together.  Where  could  I  look  for  salvation?  I  had  a 
Bible  with  me,  and,  as  I  read,  comfort  came  to  my 
heart.  In  my  extremity  one  of  my  scholars  sought  me 
out,  then  returned  to  his  aunt's  home  to  get  food  and 
drink  for  me. 

That  night  I  went  into  the  village  to  inquire  about 
another  refuge.  A  Christian  said  that  he  had  a  cousin 
named  Liu  about  three  miles  away,  who  might  talce 
us  in.  I  went  to  see  Mr.  Liu,  who  said :  **I  '11  shelter 
your  wife  and  child,  but  you  must  never  come  near. 
If  only  your  wife  comes,  the  neighbors  will  think 
that  she  is  a  relative  of  mine."  So  I  took  my  wife 
to  his  home,  and  returned  to  the  village. 

That  night  I  heard  that  the  district  magistrate,  in 
obedience  to  an  imperial  edict,  had  issued  a  proclama- 
tion promising  a  reward  of  fifty  taels  for  the  capture 
of  every  Christian  leader,  commanding  the  extermi- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS      395 

nation  of  Christians,  root  and  branch,  and  the  confis- 
cation of  all  their  property.  All  who  sheltered  or 
helped  Christians  would  share  their  fate.  The  magis- 
trate dug  an  immense  pit  for  the  burial  of  Christians, 
and  enlisted  lioxers  to  execute  his  commands. 

The  Christians  fled  for  their  lives.  I  alone  re- 
mained in  the  village.  Hiding  in  a  vineyard,  I  prayed : 
"Lord,  you  are  my  Shepherd,  my  Rock.  Soul  and 
body  are  in  your  hands.  Let  me  hide  in  your  bosom, 
and  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  wicked  men."  Long 
I  prayed,  and  when  I  came  out  the  villagers  drove  me 
from  the  place,  saying,  "To-morrow  the  Boxers  are 
coming." 

It  was  raining  and  dark.  Whither  should  I  go? 
There  was  no  one  to  direct  me,  so  I  sat  down  under  a 
tree.  I  longed  to  go  to  my  wife  and  child ;  but  had  not 
Mr.  Liu  said  that  he  would  shelter  them  no  longer  if 
I  went  to  his  house?  In  the  morning  I  decided  to  go 
to  the  home  of  Mr.  Ai,  a  relative  of  the  pupil  who  had 
befriended  me. 

Mr.  Ai's  home  was  about  two  miles  away,  and  for 
the  sake  of  my  pupil  he  took  me  in.  At  nine  o'clock 
that  morning  my  wife  appeared  at  the  door,  her  baby 
in  her  arms. 

"Why  have  you  come?"  I  exclaimed. 

"I  came  near  never  seeing  your  face  again,"  she 
said. 

Then  she  told  me  in  detail  how  Mr.  Liu.  taking 
advantage  of  these  troublous  times,  had  plotted  to  take 
her  to  another  place,  but  God  had  moved  her  heart  to 
detect  his  wicked  device.  So,  allowing  Mr.  Liu  to  go 
ahead  with  her  baggage,  she  had  watched  her  chance 
to  hide  by  the  wayside.  She  knew  that  Mr.  Ai's  home 
was  not  far  away,  and  had  paid  a  shepherd  bov  to 
guide  her. 


396      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

Not  planning  to  meet,  we  had  met.  Though  I 
hated  Mr.  Liu  for  his  evil  intent,  I  thanked  God  that 
through  it  I  had  been  reunited  with  my  wife  and  child. 

Mr.  Ai  did  not  dare  to  let  us  stay  in  his  home; 
but  an  old  lady  related  to  him  took  pity  on  us,  and 
said  that  we  might  live  in  her  vegetable  garden,  which 
was  surrounded  by  a  wall  and  contained  a  little  hut. 
She  promised  to  take  food  and  water  to  us,  but  cau- 
tioned us  that  we  must  not  go  to  the  garden  until  dark. 

But  before  dark  ten  armed  yamen  runners  came 
searching  for  us.  Warned  in  time^  a  man  led  us  over 
the  wall  into  the  garden,  where  we  hid  in  the  hut  and 
eluded  the  search.  Together  in  this  quiet  spot  we  read 
our  Bible,  and  thanked  God  for  his  mercy. 

In  this  room  we  lived  for  four  days;  then  a  new 
danger  came.  The  villagers  suspected  our  where- 
abouts, and  the  old  woman  wanted  us  to  leave.  Sud- 
denly I  thought  of  a  Mr.  Ch'u,  who  was  employed  by 
Mr.  Ai  as  teacher,  and  who  had  offered  to  befriend 
me.  So  I  asked  the  woman  to  request  him  to  come 
secretly  to  talk  with  me.  Just  as  we  were  talking,  a 
large  company  of  Boxers  surrounded  our  hut  on  all 
sides.  We  could  only  hear  the  sound  of  swords,  spears, 
and  chains.  I  asked  Mr.  Ch'u  to  go  out  to  look,  while 
my  wife  and  I  knelt,  beseeching  God  to  save  us.  Soon 
I  was  seized  by  the  Boxers.  Binding  my  arms  behind 
my  back,  they  started  to  drag  me  away.  My  wife  and 
child  wept  bitterly,  and  besought  Mr.  Ch'u  to  save  me. 
Moved  by  compassion  he  came  forward  and  offered 
to  stand  security  for  me. 

He  said  to  the  Boxers:  "Wait  until  morning,  and 
we  '11  talk  the  matter  over.  Why  should  you  in  the 
dead  of  night  make  such  a  disturbance,  setting  the 
dogs  to  barking  and  scaring  every  one?" 

The  Boxers  set  me  free,  and,  returning  to  the  little 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      397 

room,  I  claspctl  my  wife  in  my  arms,  and  knelt  to 
thank  God  for  sending  this  man  to  save  me  at  a  time 
when  hope  was  lost. 

Early  the  next  morninj:^  the  Boxers  wished  to  take 
me  to  the  Boxer  headquarters  at  K'ang  P'ing  Hsien, 
to  get  the  reward  of  fifty  taels,  but  Mr.  Ch'u  opposed 
them.  A  Boxer  called  out,  ''Take  all  three  of  them 
to  the  southern  ravine,  and  let  them  die  under  the 
sword."  Mr.  Ch'u  and  Mr.  Ai  resisted  them,  even  to 
the  point  of  bloodshed,  and  the  Boxers,  seeing  that 
Mr.  Ch'u  was  wounded,  were  frightened,  knowing  that 
he  was  an  intluential  man.  We  hid  in  a  hayshed  be- 
longing to  Mr.  Ai.  This  was  the  second  time  that 
Mr.  Ch'u  saved  us. 

Then  the  Boxers  made  a  plot,  saying,  "Let  Mr. 
Liu  spread  a  feast  for  us,  then  we  will  let  him  flee." 
I  did  not  suspect  that  this  was  a  plot  to  hold  me  until 
they  could  summon  soldiers  to  seize  me.  About  nine 
in  the  morning  my  wife  heard  the  bugles  of  soldiers, 
and,  looking  out,  we  saw  ten  cavalrymen  riding  straight 
toward  Mrs.  Ai's  house.  Fortunately  Mr.  Ch'u  stood 
in  the  schoolroom  door  and  invited  the  lieutenant  in. 

The  lieutenant  said  :  "I  hear  that  Mr.  Liu,  a  poisoner, 
is  concealed  at  i\Ir.  Ai's.     We  have  come  to  arrest  him." 

Mr.  Ch'u  said,  "There  is  no  such  man  here." 

"To-day  a  man  came  and  reported  that  yesterday, 
in  cleaning  out  a  well,  poison  was  found,  which  must 
have  been  put  there  by  Mr.  Liu." 

"There  is  no  such  man  and  no  such  affair." 

The  lieutenant  asked  no  more  questions,  and  soon 
rode  away. 

This  was  the  third  time  that  Mr.  Ch'u  saved  us, 
and  we  thanked  God  with  glad  hearts. 

After  noon.  Mr.  Ai  charged  me  to  flee  as  soon  as 
it  was   dark.     At   five   in  the   afternoon    a    stranger 


398      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

rushed  in  saying,  "The  officers  know  that  Mr.  Liu  has 
not  gone,  and  have  sent  soldiers  to  arrest  him.  They 
are  almost  here."  In  great  confusion  my  wife  and  I 
climbed  over  the  wall,  and  rushed  into  a  neighbor's 
house.  The  woman  said,  "Who  are  you?"  and  when 
I  explained  she  pushed  me  out.  My  wife  stood  there 
with  her  child  in  her  arms,  and  when  she  saw  that  they 
would  not  let  me  stay  she  cried,  "Leave  me,  and  es- 
cape quickly  to  a  distance." 

With  agonized  heart  I  forsook  them  and  fled.  A 
man  with  a  sickle  in  his  hand  pursued  me,  but  fortu- 
nately he  was  stopped  by  men  sent  by  Mr.  Ch'u.  After- 
ward I  knew  that  this  man  had  been  hired  by  a  Mr. 
Chan  to  capture  me  and  hand  me  over  to  the  Boxers, 
because  he  wished  to  take  my  wife  as  a  concubine. 
So  time  and  again  he  plotted  against  me;  but  four 
times  my  Heavenly  Father  sent  Mr.  Ch'u  to  rescue  me 
from  danger. 

After  several  days  spent  with  friends  many  miles 
to  the  south,  I  started,  July  25th,  to  see  my  wife.  I 
had  heard  that  Mr.  Ch'u  had  sent  her  to  his  home  on 
the  borders  of  Mongolia.  Great  was  our  joy  when  we 
met,  but  it  was  clouded  by  the  illness  of  our  little 
boy. 

My  wife  said,  "When  you  fled  from  Mr.  Ai's  did 
you  know  that  you  were  pursued  by  a  man  with  a 
sickle?" 

"I  knew  it." 

"At  that  time  the  woman  to  whose  house  I  had 
fled  pushed  me  out.  Where  could  I  go?  Clasping 
my  child  in  my  arms,  I  hid  in  a  grove.  I  could  hear 
the  mob  crying,  'Pursue  him  quickly.'  Some  one  cried 
out,  'Teacher  Liu  ran  toward  the  east.'  The  tumult 
lasted  a  long  time,  and  I  did  not  know  whether  you 
were  living  or  dead.     How  can  I  tell  my  grief?     I 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      399 

could  only  pray  God  to  comfort  and  protect.  Darkness 
fell,  and  all  was  cjuict.  How  helpless  was  I  with  my 
little  child !  When  my  heart  was  burning  with  grief, 
Mr.  Ch'u  sent  his  younger  brother  to  find  me.  He 
said :  *Do  n't  be  afraid.  I  'm  going  to  saddle  a  donkey 
and  take  you  to  our  home.'  So  we  started  off  in  the 
darkness,  members  of  the  Ai  family  going  several 
miles  to  protect  us.  Mr.  Ch'u's  brother,  leading  the 
donkey,  walked  the  whole  twenty  miles.  Truly  we 
should   praise   God   for  our   marvelous   escapes." 

Mr.  Ch'u  advised  me  to  leave  the  next  day  to  avoid 
exciting  the  suspicion  of  neighbors.  Again  I  went 
southward,  and  saw  the  flames  kindled  by  the  Boxers, 
and  heard  the  stories  of  the  sufferings  of  my  friends. 
I  went  forty  miles,  and  had  not  a  cash  left.  Word 
came  that  the  Boxers  were  upon  me,  and  I  fled  into 
the  dense  forests  on  the  banks  of  the  Liao  River. 
In  this  desert  solitude  I  might  have  starved  but  for 
some  bread  which  a  friend  had  given  me. 

About  twenty  days  passed  on  these  wanderings,  an'! 
I  can  not  tell  my  sufferings.  August  14th  I  again  went 
to  Mr.  Ch'u's  to  see  my  wife  and  child.  Mr.  Ch'u's 
son  and  his  wife  were  not  willing  to  shelter  them 
longer ;  so  we  started  southw^ard,  I  carrying  the  child 
and  leading  my  wife.  The  heat  was  intense ;  we  had 
no  food  ;  no  one  dared  to  shelter  us.  The  child  cried  with 
hunger  and  thirst.  Every  well  was  guarded,  lest  it 
be  poisoned,  and  we  did  not  dare  ask  for  water.  Once 
we  got  into  an  inn  just  in  time  to  escape  a  company 
of  Boxers  who  were  guarding  two  large  cartloads  of 
Christians  whom  they  had  captured. 

I  can  not  tell  all  of  our  sufferings,  of  our  narrow  es- 
capes, of  the  stories  which  we  heard  of  the  martyrdom 
of  Elder  Hsii,  who  had  fled  from  Fa  K'u  Men  with 
us,  and  of  other  friends.    At  last  we  reached  the  home 


400      CHINA'S  BOOK  O^  MARTYRS 

of  a  distant  relative,  and  in  October  we  returned  to 
Fa  K'u  Men,  the  Boxers  having  subsided.  For  four 
months  we  had  been  wanderers,  and  we  had  found 
shelter  in  more  than  twenty  places.  From  danger  after 
danger  God  had  delivered  us.  Should  we  not  praise 
his  grace? 

IN    KAI.GAN 

Early  in  the  morning,  May  2 1st,  three  students 
started  from  T'ungchou  for  their  homes,  a  five  days* 
journey  to  the  northwest.  The  one  who  told  this 
story.  Yen  I,  had  just  finished  his  Junior  year,  and 
Wan  Hsin  had  just  graduated  from  the  academy.  They 
saw  Boxers  on  their  way,  but  they  were  only  "drill- 
ing" as  yet.  On  the  third  day  the  paths  of  the  students 
diverged,  and  Yen  I  walked  on  alone  toward  Kalgan, 
where  his  parents  were  living.  As  he  sat  in  a  teashop 
in  a  suburb  of  the  large  walled  city  of  Hsuan  Hua 
Fu,  he  heard  men  talking  about  the  Boxers,  who  were 
enlisting  recruits  in  the  city.  So  here  were  these 
dreaded  foes  only  a  day's  journey  from  Kalgan ! 

Yen  I's  home  was  in  the  hospital  premises  belong- 
ing to  the  mission  of  the  American  Board,  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  compound  where  the  mis- 
sionaries lived.  Both  places  were  outside  the  walled 
city,  Yen  I's  mother  was  a  Bible-woman,  and  every 
day  she  would  take  her  books,  and  go  from  house  to 
house  teaching  the  women.  His  father  sold  matches, 
and  his  three  brothers  worked  in  shops. 

The  very  next  day  after  he  reached  home  his  uncle 
came  to  report  that  he  had  seen  a  Shantung  man  in 
the  city,  going  from  shop  to  shop  demanding  money, 
and  showing  an  official  document  licensing  him  to  en- 
list Boxer  recruits.  That  night  the  Shantung  man 
took  up  his  abode  close  by  the  hospital.    The  next  day 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OK  MARTYRS      401 

two  boys  submitted  themselves  to  his  hypnotism,  then 
the  number  multipHed,  and  the  street  was  thronged, 
while  the  young  Boxers  practiced  only  a  few  feet 
from  the  hospital  gate.  Boys  who  were  reluctant  to 
join  in  the  rites  were  seized,  and  compelled  to  go 
through  the  strange  "drill."  Every  day  Yen  I  stood 
and  watched  them,  and,  sitting  in  his  own  home,  he 
could  hear  them  talking  about  burning  the  hospital, 
repeating  the  usual  slanders  about  the  digging  out  of 
eyes  for  medicine,  and  how  poison  had  been  sent  out 
from  the  dispensary  to  throw  into  wells.  "These  Cath- 
olics go  from  house  to  house  smearing  the  gates  with 
blood!"  exclaimed  an  angry  voice.  "But  this  hospital 
belongs  to  the  Jesus  Church,"  said  another.  "These 
missionaries  are  Americans,  and  they  have  committed 
no  evil  deeds." 

Yen  I  still  went  about  the  neighborhood,  and  when 
opportunity  offered  he  would  point  out  the  danger  of 
following  the  teaching  of  the  Boxers.  But  the  con- 
tagion spread  with  ajarming  rapidity/  in  dty  and 
suburb  Yen  I  went  to  the  mission  to  carry  the  warn- 
ing, and,  as  he  sat  talking,  a  company  of  Boxers  came 
almost  to  the  mission  gate,  going  through  their  drfll. 
Mr.  Sprague  went  out  and  exhorted  them  to  scatter ; 
but  they  only  withdrew  a  short  distance,  and  con- 
tinued their  rites.  Yen  I  returned  home,  and  decided 
to  take  his  mother  and  his  fifteen-year-old  sister  to 
their  old  home,  over  twenty  miles  away.  Mrs.  Yen  was 
so  well  known  as  a  Christian  worker  that  she  would 
be  one  of  the  first  ones  whom  the  Boxers  would  try 
to  seize  upon  when  the  execution  of  their  murderous 
threats  began. 

Sunday  evening,  June  loth,  these  three,  whose  for- 
tunes we  are  to  follow,  left  their  home.  Our  story 
would  be  too  long  were  we  to  tell  the  experiences  of 
26 


402      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  other  members  of  the  family.  Neither  can  we  re- 
cord here  the  wonderful  escape  of  the  missionaries. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sprague  and  Miss  Engh  were  alone 
that  Sunday  morning,  but  before  night  Mr.  Williams, 
Mr.  Roberts,  and  Dr.  Murdock  had  returned  from  the 
annual  meeting  at  T'ungchou,  and  soon  all  were  flee- 
ing for  life  across  the  Mongolian  plains  into  Siberia. 

Our  three  refugees  found  a  Boxer  band  already 
organized  in  their  old  village  home,  but  relatives  in 
neighboring  villages  offered  them  a  shelter.  Mrs.  Yen 
and  her  daughter  lived  with  a  married  daughter,  and 
Yen  I  went  to  work  for  an  aunt  in  a  village  over  two 
miles  away.  A  literary  man  set  to  work  at  once  to 
bring  Yen  I  into  trouble.  One  day  Yen  I  led  his 
aunt's  donkey  to  the  public  well,  and  the  literary  man 
at  once  started  the  report  that  he  had  seen  the  "erh 
mao-tzu"   throwing   poison   into  the   well. 

But  Yen  I  did  not  have  long  to  think  over  his 
troubles.  Two  or  three  weeks  after  his  mother  had 
taken  refuge  in  his  sister's  home,  a  cousin  came  in 
great  distress,  crying:  *'Your  mother  can't  stay  at 
your  sister's;  they  are  going  to  kill  her.  Take  her  to 
our  house  at  once." 

Yen  I  hastened  to  the  rescue,  and  learned  that  the 
rumor  was  afloat  that  Roman  Catholics  were  concealed 
in  the  village.  A  rough  from  another  village  had  come 
to  his  sister's  gate  and  called  out,  ''Are  there  Catholics 
here?"  Neighbors  appeared  on  the  scene  and  denied 
that  any  of  that  sect  were  concealed  there.  "You 
can't  deceive  me !"  exclaimed  the  man.  "I  have  learned 
by  divination  that  there  surely  are  Catholics  here;" 
and  he  strode  off  boasting  that  he  would  soon  bring 
the  Boxers  to  make  an  end  of  them. 

Under  cover  of  darkness,  Yen  I  took  his  mother  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      403 

young  sister  to  the  home  of  an  uncle  in  another  vil- 
lage ;  then  hurried  back  to  tell  the  aunt  who  had  shel- 
tered him  of  his  mother's  safety.  He  found  that  Box- 
ers had  already  gathered  in  the  village,  and  after  he 
had  eaten  he  proposed  to  leave ;  but  his  aunt  persuaded 
him  that  it  would  be  better  to  wait  and  start  before 
light   the   next   morning. 

In  the  evening  a  man  of  the  village  came  in,  say- 
ing, "Why  are  you  staying  here?  We  are  all  in  fear 
because  of  you."  Yen  I  replied,  *1  '11  leave,  but  it 's 
too  late  now.  I  '11  start  early  in  the  morning."  The 
man  went  out,  muttering  something  about  his  head 
aching,  and  commenced  practicing  Boxer  gymnastics 
close  by  the  gate.  Soon  other  Boxers  joined  him,  and 
a  rabble  gathered.  Thirty  or  forty  Boxers  pushed  into 
the  yard.  Yen  I  had  been  left  alone  in  the  room.  The 
Boxers  seemed  reluctant  to  advance  and  drag  him  out ; 
they  were  not  yet  accustomed  to  bloodshed,  and  they 
did  not  know  in  which  room  the  young  man  was  hid- 
ing. So  they  hung  back,  still  brandishing  their  swords. 
In  the  darkness.  Yen  I  slipped  outside  the  door  and 
stood  watching  them.  There  seemed  no  way  of  es- 
cape. Going  back  into  the  little  room,  he  knelt  for  a 
moment  in  prayer.  Then  again  he  slipped  out  into  a 
little  pocket  of  the  yard  made  by  two  houses  standing 
at  right  angles  a  few  feet  apart.  In  this  pocket  was 
a  cart,  and  from  this  he  managed  to  climb  to  the 
roof  of  the  adjoining  house  and  jump  down  into  the 
street.  As  he  went  over  the  roof  he  heard  a  boy's 
voice  cry  out,  **See,  there  's  some  one  on  that  house!" 
but  all  were  busy  searching  the  rooms  for  poison  and 
the  well-poisoner,  and  the  child's  words  were  not 
noticed. 

Bv  this  time  Yen  I  had  a  good  start  toward  the 


404      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

mountains.  For  two  hours  he  ran ;  then,  wearied,  sank 
down  in  a  mountain  ravine  to  rest.  The  cold  night 
wind  pierced  his  thin  garments ;  anxiety  for  his  mother 
and  sister  oppressed  his  heart.  Before  day  broke  he 
made  his  way  again  to  his  sister's  house,  entering 
without  attracting  attention. 

There  we  will  leave  him  while  we  tell  the  trials 
of  his  mother  and  younger  sister. 

They  received  warning  that  the  Boxers  were  com- 
ing to  seize  them,  and  late  in  the  afternoon  two  don- 
keys were  saddled  for  flight.  The  Boxers  were  all  in 
a  temple,  practicing  the  usual  rites  preparatory  to 
capturing  their  victims.  No  one  saw  the  two  women 
and  the  man  accompanying  them^,  as  they  passed  down 
the  quiet  street  and  were  soon  in  the  shelter  of  a  deep 
ravine  which  effectually  screened  them  from  view. 
About  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  they  had  left,  the  Box- 
ers surrounded  the  house  which  had  harbored  them 
and  searched  every  nook,  even  lighting  lanterns  and 
peering  into  the  dark  corners.  Mrs.  Yen  was  already 
in  the  home  of  her  sister,  less  than  a  mile  away.  In 
this  yard  was  a  sort  of  cellar  or  pit  where  potatoes 
were  stored  in  winter.  There  they  took  refuge,  know- 
ing that  a  neighbor's  call  might  any  moment  betray 
their  presence  if  they  remained  in  the  house.  But 
gradually  the  secret  leaked  out  that  Christians  were 
concealed  there.  A  little  child  ran  in  breathless  to  warn 
them.  They  saddled  a  donkey;  then  the  two  women 
and  a  friendly  relative  made  for  a  ravine  close  by  their 
door.  As  they  fled  up  this  ravine  they  heard  the  shouts 
ot  the  mob  as  they  searched  their  abandoned  refuge. 
The  Boxers  thought  it  must  have  been  a  mistaken  ru- 
mor that  they  were  concealed  in  the  cellar,  and  did 
not  pursue  them.  Soon  darkness  fell.  In  the  branch- 
ing,  roadless   ravines  they  lost  their  way,  but  after 


CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS      405 

wandering  about  all  ni^hl,  they  succeeded,  before  light 
betrayed  them,  in  reaching  the  home  where  Yen  I  had 
taken  refuge. 

They  were  not  allowed  a  long  breathing-spell ;  for 
coon  their  presence  was  suspected,  and  a  plot  was  laid 
for  them.     A  man  in  the  village  daubed  his  gate  with 
a  mystic  symbol  in  red ;  then  two  wandering  beggars 
were  seized,  and  the  story  was  started  that  these  beg- 
gars had   been   hired  by  the  Christians  to  write  the 
blood  character,  and  bring  madness  to  the  brains  of 
the  unhappy  inmates  of  the  home.    There  was  no  well 
in  the  village,  but  all  the  water  was  brought   from 
a  public  well  two  miles  away.     This  well,  rumor  said, 
had  been  poisoned  by   Yen   I.     He  was  the   special 
object  of  their  hate.     The  villagers  began  to  gather 
in  great  excitement,  and  word  was  sent  to  another  vil- 
lage to  assist  them  in  ridding  the  country  of  this  pest. 
They  came  running  with  hoarse  howls,  even  villagers 
who  had  no  weapons  snatching  hoes,  pitchforks,  or 
clubs.    There  was  no  escape  for  the  women,  who  could 
not  run   fast  on  their  little  bound  feet.     Perhaps  if 
Yen  I  left,  the  Boxers  would  not  hurt  them.     Yen  I 
determined  to  flee.     He  told  his  mother  how  to  talk 
to    the    mob,    to    demand    proof    if    they    brought 
charges  against  her,  and  to  show  no  fear.     As  yet 
they  had  heard  of  the  killing  of  no  women,  and  they 
had  a  chance  for  life.    Just  as  the  mob  was  gathering, 
there  came  up  a  sudden  thunderstorm,  and  the  rain  fell 
in  sheets.     It  takes  a  very  mad  Chinese  rioter  not  to 
seek  shelter   from   such   a  downpour.     Besides,  were 
their  victims  not  in   a  trap?     So  each    for    himself 
sought  a  refuge  from  the  storm,  and  Yen  I  was  out  of 
the  house  and  down  in  a  ravine  before  they  reappeared. 
A  little  girl  whom  he  knew  called  to  him  as  he  rushed 
toward  the  ravine,  but   he   did  not  stop  to  answer. 


4o6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Soon  he  heard  his  pursuers,  and  heard  the  girl  call- 
ing to  them,  "He  has  just  run  off  that  way."  But 
that  country  is  full  of  deep  ravines,  little  caves,  and 
sunken  roads.  In  a  sheltered  nook  Yen  I  crouched, 
and  his  enemies  rushed  by  only  a  few  paces  away.  A 
little  later,  as  he  made  his  way  across  the  country,  he 
saw,  with  a  thrill  of  horror,  a  band  of  Boxers  leading 
his  mother  and  sister  to  another  village. 

Mrs.  Yen  and  her  daughter  had  crouched  in  a  cel- 
lar when  the  mob  poured  in.  The  most  influential 
man  in  the  village  was  related  to  Mrs.  Yen's  son-in- 
law.  He  came  forward  and  tried  to  disperse  the  mob. 
Enraged  at  not  finding  the  women,  they  turned  on  him, 
and  Mrs.  Yen  came  out  of  the  cellar  and  confronted 
them.  A  man  sprang  forward  with  a  club,  and  the 
cry  arose,  "Beat  her  to  death."  But  others  protested, 
and  in  the  momentary  lull  Mrs.  Yen  said :  "Of  what 
crime  do  you  accuse  me?  Bring  your  evidence.  Have 
I  broken  the  laws?  Then  take  me  before  your  mag- 
istrate, try,  and  condemn  me."  They  told  the  story 
of  the  beggars  and  the  blood  symbol.  "Bring  the  beg- 
gars here,"  said  Mrs.  Yen.  "When  did  I  give  you 
money  for  writing  that  symbol,  or  poison  for  putting 
in  wells  ?"  The  beggars  protested  that  they  had  never 
even  seen  her  face.  How  could  she  have  hired  them? 
Then  the  villager  who  had  been  summoned  to  help 
exterminate  the  public  enemies,  exclaimed  in  disgust, 
"Why  did  you  summon  us  if  you  had  no  proof  against 
them  ?"  They  vented  their  rage  by  helping  themselves 
to  whatever  they  wanted  in  the  house  which  had  har- 
bored the  Christians  and  smashing  the  furniture.  Then, 
after  a  council  of  war,  they  decided  to  take  Mrs.  Yen 
and  her  daughter  to  the  leading  village  in  the  neigh- 
borhood for  trial  by  the  Boxers  there.  It  was  while 
they  were  being  led  to  this  village  that  Yen  I  saw 
them. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      407 

This  large  village  was  one  where  a  relative  of  Mrs. 
Yen's  lived,  and  where  she  was  well  known  as  a  Chris- 
tian. The  wife  of  one  of  the  Boxers  had  studied  in 
the  Kalgan  mission  school  when  a  little  girl.  Many 
of  the  Boxers  had  been  to  the  Kalgan  dispensary  for 
medicine,  and  had  eaten  at  Mrs.  Yen's  table.  When 
they  saw  who  it  was  that  was  brought  before  them  for 
trial,  the  knives  which  they  had  been  brandishing  fell 
by  their  sides,  and  they  stood  with  bowed  heads  and 
shamed  faces,  silent.  Then  one  voice  cajled  out, 
"Bury  her  alive,"  and  the  dread  cry  was  echoed  by 
others.  But  still  the  Boxer  band  hung  back.  Then 
four  men,  notorious  bullies  in  the  neighborhood,  who 
must  have  had  some  sparks  of  goodness  left,  came  for- 
ward to  plead  for  the  helpless  woman.  *'Why  have  you 
brought  this  good  woman  here  to  kill?  We  have 
known  her  from  childhood ;  she  has  often  been  here  to 
preach,  and  through  her  influence  many  have  received 
healing  at  the  Kalgan  dispensary.  Her  husband,  too, 
is  a  kind,  good  man.  She  has  not  harmed  us;  she  has 
no  enmity  against  us.  Why  kill  her  ?  But  if  you  must 
kill  her,  let  it  not  be  here."  Then  the  Boxers  of  the 
village  muttered,  "We  '11  not  kill  her,  but  she  must 
leave."  It  was  already  dark,  and  the  four  champions 
pleaded,  "Let  her  stay  here  just  the  one  night  in  the 
house  of  her  relative." 

So  once  more  a  roof  sheltered  the  heads  of  the  poor 
fugitives.  But  the  Boxers  did  not  disperse.  As  the 
darkness  deepened,  their  anger  and  courage  seemed 
to  increase.  Just  as  they  were  about  to  break  in,  Mrs. 
Yen's  husband  arrived  in  the  village.  He  had  fled 
from  Kalgan  into  Mongolia  several  days  after  our 
three  refugees  left,  and  was  now  searchhig  for  his 
family.  Hearing  the  mob  at  the  front  gate,  he  stole 
around  to  the  rear,  and  by  the  time  the  mob  broke 


4o8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

into  his  yard  he,  his  wife,  and  his  daughter  were 
crouching  behind  the  brick  bed.  The  Boxers  looked 
in  at  the  windows,  but  failed  to  see  them,  and  the 
shout  went  up,  "They  have  escaped;  pursue  them." 

Just  then  came  another  diversion.  Two  strangers 
had  arrived  at  an  inn,  with  a  bottle  of  red  liquid  used 
for  dyeing  thread.  The  rumor  reached  the  Boxers  that 
two  "erh  mao-tzu,"  with  blood  for  writing  cabalistic 
letters,  were  in  the  village  inn,  and  with  mad  howls 
they  rushed  to  the  slaughter.  While  they  were  doing 
these  innocent  traders  to  death,  Mrs.  Yen  and  her 
daughter  made  their  way  unobserved  through  a  hole 
in  the  back  wall,  two  relatives  soon  joined  them  with 
donkeys,  and  in  the  dark  night  they  turned  their  faces 
toward  Kalgan.  To  go  to  Kalgan  seemed  to  Mrs.  Yen 
and  her  daughter  like  marching  into  the  jaws  of  the  lion ; 
but  where  else  could  they  find  shelter?  By  afternoon 
of  the  next  day  the  two  donkeys  which  the  women  rode 
were  too  tired  to  move,  and  they  stopped  by  the  road- 
side to  rest.  Without  warning,  a  band  of  Boxers 
burst  upon  them,  their  swords  fairly  dripping  with 
the  blood  of  a  victim  whom  they  had  just  slain.  They 
had  recognized  Mrs.  Yen's  brother-in-law,  and  the 
thirst  for  blood  possessed  them.  First  they  must  say 
their  prayers  and  read  their  incantations;  then  to  the 
slaughter.  With  rare  eloquence  the  men  with  Mrs. 
Yen  and  her  daughter  pleaded  for  their  lives.  "But 
see  how  barren  the  fields  are !"  the  Boxers  said ;  "for 
months  there  has  been  no  rain.  Is  this  not  the  fault 
of  the  foreign  devils  and  their  followers?"  Still  the 
man  protested  that  they  were  innocent,  and  while  the 
parleying  was  going  on  the  women  mounted  their 
donkeys  and  again  a  strange  power  held  back  their 
pursuers. 

They  were  then  ten  miles   from  Kalgan.     When 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      409 

they  had  gone  six  or  seven  miles  further,  rain  began 
to  fall  in  torrents.  Still  they  pressed  on  until  the  tired 
donkeys  could  go  no  further ;  then,  drenched  and  cold, 
they  sat  behind  a  wayside  hedge  and  watched  a  com- 
pany of  Boxers  file  along  the  road.  Friends  met  them 
from  the  city.  "You  can  not  possibly  get  in,"  they 
said.  "Every  street  and  alley  is  guarded,  and  fences 
are  thrown  across  the  entrance  to  streets  and  alleys, 
so  that  no  stranger  may  slip  past  the  guards." 

On  a  street  near  the  edge  of  the  town  lived  one 
who  was  not  a  Christian,  but  whom  they  had  be- 
friended. Perhaps  here  they  could  find  a  refuge,  if 
only  they  could  steal  past  the  guards  unobserved. 
Thither  they  made  their  way,  and  when  torrents  of  rain 
sent  the  soldier  sentries  from  their  posts,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  unobserved  into  this  shelter.  There 
they  were  not  betrayed  by  the  neighbors,  and  the 
weary  feet  rested  for  eight  days.  We  will  leave  them 
there,  and  follow  Yen  I's  fortunes — or,  rather,  mis- 
fortunes. That  sad  day  when  he  saw  his  mother  cap- 
tured he  went  to  the  mountains,  intending  to  make 
a  circuit  through  their  solitudes  and  reach  Kalgan, 
where  he  knew  his  mother  would  try  to  go  if  she 
escaped.  Hungry,  thirsty,  cold,  he  spent  that  night 
in  a  cave.  The  next  day,  with  a  shock  of  surprise, 
he  came  face  to  face  with  a  college-mate  and  his  father, 
who  were  fleeing  from  Kalgan.  "There  is  no  safety 
for  you  in  Kalgan,"  they  urged,  "and  the  Boxers  have 
just  killed  a  man  across  the  river.  Turn  back  with  us." 
They  ventured  into  an  inn,  and  ate  a  little ;  then  again 
Yen  I  went  to  the  mountains.  We  can  not  tell  in  detail 
the  story  of  those  next  days  of  torture  of  body  and  mind, 
or  of  the  time  when  he  was  seen  in  the  mountains  and 
fifty  or  sixty  Boxers  came  searching  for  him.  Tor- 
mented by  hunger  and  by  anxiety  for  his  friends,  he 


4IO      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

at  last  resolved  that,  live  or  die,  he  would  try  to  make 
his  way  to  Kalgan.  Still  keeping  in  the  mountains, 
he  met  one  day  two  little  girls,  and  asked  them  whether 
a  Mrs.  Yen  was  staying  in  their  village.  Staring  at 
him  with  frightened  eyes,  the  girls  courtesied  politely, 
but  not  a  word  would  they  speak.  Had  they  not  heard 
that  there  were  followers  of  the  foreign  devils  in  the 
mountains,  and  that  any  one  who  spoke  to  them  would 
go  insane? 

There  were  no  springs  in  these  mountains,  and  the 
poor  refugee,  wild  with  thirst,  drank  with  grateful 
heart  some  rain  water  which  he  found  in  a  hollowed 
rock.  On  the  2d  of  July,  after  eight  days  in  the 
mountains,  he  approached  Kalgan.  He  had  a  cousin 
there,  and  he  stole  into  her  garden  and  concealed  him- 
self until  rain  drove  away  the  men  who  were  working 
there.  Then  he  appeared  before  his  cousin,  who  re- 
ceived him  as  one  risen  from  the  dead.  He  heard 
with  great  joy  that  his  mother  was  also  concealed  in 
Kalgan ;  but  he  could  not  go  to  see  her.  His  youngest 
sister  had  been  taken  to  the  home  of  an  uncle  seven 
miles  away,  where  she  was  not  known  as  a  Christian, 
and  there  her  father  joined  her  later. 

The  mission  buildings  in  Kalgan  had  been  looted, 
but  not  burned.  Only  two  days  after  Yen  I  arrived, 
the  Kalgan  Boxers  went  to  the  large  city  of  Hsuan 
Hua  Fu  to  invite  the  Boxers  there  to  help  them  wipe 
out  from  Kalgan  every  trace  of  the  foreigners  and 
their  followers.  Our  tempest-tossed  friends  must  flee 
before  they  returned.  So  on  the  5th,  just  six  days 
before  flames  consumed  the  mission  buildings,  Yen  I 
and  his  mother  were  again  wandering  in  search  of 
a  hiding-place.  Seventeen  miles  away,  hunger  com- 
pelled them  to  stop  at  the  home  of  a  distant  relative 
for  food,  and  they  were  recognizeed  as  Christians  by 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      411 

the  villagers.  *1  '11  call  the  Boxers,"  exclaimed  a  man, 
hurrying  off.  "Send  them  away,"  called  an  old  man, 
in  great  wrath ;  "they  '11  bring  disaster  on  us  all." 
Yen  I's  mother  started  to  go,  but  the  relative  objected. 
"Where  can  you  go?  Stay,  and  I  will  protect  you  with 
my  life."  The  brave  woman  refused  to  let  him  make 
this  sacrifice,  but  accepted  his  offer  of  a  horse,  and  was 
soon  out  of  sight. 

Word  now  reached  the  refugees  that  all  the  Boxers 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  home  of  Mrs.  Yen's  brother,  who 
had  received  them  on  their  first  flight  from  Kalgan, 
had  now  dispersed,  and  there  Yen  I  and  his  mother 
found  refuge  for  many  weeks,  until  the  terrible  storm 
of  persecution  had  spent  its  fury.  The  Boxer  frenzy, 
with  its  wild  superstitions  and  uncanny  hypnotism,  had 
reached  such  a  pitch  that  public  sentiment  rose  up  and 
compelled  the  disbanding  of  these  spirit-possessed 
madmen.  It  was  well  enough  to  slaughter  the  Catho- 
lics, but  when  actual  insanity  possessed  them,  and  they 
went  about  in  the  night  indiscriminately  hacking  up 
any  persons  whom  they  might  find  sleeping  in  their 
beds,  these  once  lionized  pugilists  became  unpopular. 
Moreover  the  rains  had  fallen,  and  men  were  too  busy 
in  the  fields  to  practice  this  new  cult,  which  in  their 
idle  hours  had  fascinated  them.  Two  of  Yen  I's 
brothers  soon  joined  them  in  this  uncle's  home.  It 
was  not  generally  known  that  they  were  there.  The 
neighbors  did  not  care  to  give  information  which  might 
bring  the  now-dreaded  Boxers  upon  them.  There, 
in  a  few  weeks,  they  heard  that  a  great  foreign  army 
had  driven  the  Boxers  from  Tientsin.  Then  they  saw 
proclamations  commanding  that  Christians  should  be 
protected.  Strangest  of  all,  the  emperor  and  empress 
dowager  passed  only  three  miles  from  their  haven 
of  refuge,  fleeing  to  Hsi  An  Fu  from  the  foreign 


412      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

soldiers.  The  storm  was  over.  Again  they  could 
venture  out  into  the  sunshine.  Friends  came  from 
near  and  far  to  congratulate  them.  In  October  they 
ventured  back  to  Kalgan — poor,  burned,  forsaken  Kal- 
gan,  where  the  Church  seemed  to  be  uprooted.  In 
November  she  paid  the  penalty  for  her  sins.  Yen  I 
saw  the  soldiers  of  four  nations  looting  her  wealthy 
shops,  and  then  turning  back  to  Peking  with  four 
thousand  costly  fur  garments  and  thirty  thousand  taels 
of  silver. 

Thirty-one  members  of  the  Congregational  Church 
were  slain  in  Kalgan  and  its  outstations.  Most  of  the 
victims  were  from  Yii  Chou^  nearly  seventy  miles  away. 
There  six  women  found  a  common  grave  in  a  well, 
into  which  the  Boxers  threw  them,  burying  them  under 
stones  and  earth.  Among  those  who  "witnessed  a 
good  confession"  was  Wan  Hsin,  who  had  left  the 
North  China  College  in  company  with  Yen  I.  Among 
the  survivors  were  several  college  graduates,  who,  with 
their  families,  had  wandered  "in  deserts  and  mountains 
and  caves." 

IN  TIENTSIN 

As  in  Peking,  so  in  Tientsin,  the  experiences  of 
Christians  can  be  divided  into  two  general  classes ;  for 
hundreds  were  gathered  with  the  missionaries  in  the 
Foreign  Settlement,  and  hundreds  more  knew  the  hor- 
rors of  fire  and  sword  and  flight  and  massacre.  The 
experiences  of  the  siege  in  Tientsin  are  given  in 
Teacher  Chang's  story.  Of  those  outside  who  suffered 
martyrdom,  few  details  are  available.  Two  girls  from 
the  Tientsin  boarding-school  of  the  American  Board, 
and  a  student  in  the  North  China  College,  were  among 
the  slain;  also  the  mother  of  one  of  the  girls,  herself 
a  Bible-woman.     This  earnest,  faithful  soul,  through 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      413 

whose  devoted  efforts  many  had  been  won  to  Christ, 
was  in  Tientsin  just  before  the  full  fury  of  the  storm 
broke  loose.  When  asked  by  the  missionaries  if  she 
had  not  better  stay  with  them  instead  of  goinj^  back  to 
her  work  in  the  country,  she  rei)lied  :  *'0,  no !  I  must 
return  and  comfort  the  Christians.  I  tau<;ht  them, 
you  see,  and  must  stand  by  them.  Some  of  them  are 
so  afraid  of  what  the  Boxers  may  do.  I  am  not  afraid 
of  them.  They  are  all  of  the  devil  anyway.  They  can 
not  harm  the  soul,  only  the  body." 

TEACHER  CHANG'S  STORY  OF  THE  SIEGE  OF  TIENTSIN 

[Teacher  Chang  assisted  Dr.  Goodrich,  of  T'ung- 
chou,  in  the  work  of  Bible  translation.  He  also  taught 
two  classes  in  the  college,  and  was  a  deacon  in  the 
Church.  His  family  consisted  of  his  wife,  his  aged 
father,  and  three  children.  The  oldest  son,  Li  Wei 
(Levi),  a  bright,  gentle  boy,  was  a  member  of  the 
freshman  class  in  college.  We  omit  Teacher  Chang's 
detailed  account  of  his  last  days  at  T'ungchou,  and  of 
his  flight  to  Tientsin,  whence  he  and  the  younger  Pas- 
tor Meng,  returning  from  mission-meeting,  planned  to 
continue  their  journey  to  Pao  Ting  Fu.  But  a  telegram 
from  Mr.  Pitkin  warned  them  not  to  attempt  the  dan- 
gerous journey.  Teacher  Chang  gives  the  following 
account  of  the  siege  of  Tientsin :] 

Already  the  country  about  Tientsin  was  in  com- 
motion. Admiral  Seymour's  expedition  was  starting 
for  Peking;  Chinese  soldiers  and  uniformed  Boxers 
swarmed  in  the  native  city  and  surrounding  villages. 
Christian  refugees  were  pouring  into  all  the  missions 
at  the  Foreign  Settlement.  A  chapel  in  the  native  city 
was  burned,  then  another,  until  all  were  gone.  On 
Sunday,  June  17th,  we  gathered  for  our  usual  morning 


414      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

service  in  the  Congregational  chapel  at  the  Settlement, 
and  just  as  we  came  out  from  church  we  heard  the 
booming  of  cannon.  The  bombardment  of  Tientsin 
had  begun.  I  stood  and  counted  over  eighty  cannon 
explosions  within  the  next  hour.  Our  position  grew 
more  dangerous  day  by  day;  for  the  defenses  by  the 
mission  were  guarded  only  by  twenty-five  American 
marines.  It  was  necessary  to  contract  our  lines.  The 
native  converts,  numbering  about  five  hundred,  were 
permitted  by  Mr.  Cousins  to  occupy  the  great  store- 
houses of  Jardine,  Matheson  &  Company.  We  could 
take  little  food  with  us,  and  only  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
Cousins  saved  us  from  starvation.  He  gave  us  rice 
from  the  storehouses. 

We  were  closely  besieged  by  a  great  Chinese  army 
and  innumerable  Boxers.  Not  only  the  foreign  soldiers 
were  on  guard  night  and  day,  but  all  of  the  merchants, 
missionaries,  and  other  residents  of  Tientsin  who  had 
arms,  must  assist  in  the  defense,  while  those  who  had 
no  weapons  directed  large  companies  of  native  Chris- 
tians in  their  work  on  barricades  and  other  fortifica- 
tions, in  dragging  the  cannon  from  place  to  place,  and 
in  other  work  both  arduous  and  dangerous.  In  all  this 
weariness  and  danger,  God's  marvelous  help  and  de- 
liverance were  constantly  manifested,  greatly  increasing 
our  faith.     I  can  mention  only  one  or  two  instances. 

One  day  as  we  were  dragging  a  heavy  cannon,  a 
shell  fell  and  exploded  close  beside  us,  yet  not  one  was 
injured.  A  rifle  bullet  cut  away  the  clothing  from  the 
breast  of  one  of  the  Christian  men,  but  there  was  not 
even  a  mark  left  on  his  skin.  When  the  shelling  was 
especially  heavy,  the  women  and  children  all  took 
refuge  in  a  large  cellar.  One  day,  the  wife  of  Pastor 
Meng,  who  was  not  well,  lagged  behind  the  others. 
She  had  just   risen  when  a  shell  came  through  the 


CHINA'S  lU)OK  (M'   MARTYRS      415 

wall,  ami  exploding;  sent  showers  of  fragments  on  the 
place  where  she  had  been  lying.  Before  we  left  the 
mission  compound,  the  clay  after  the  Aiken  house  had 
been  burned  by  an  exploding  shell,  over  twenty  of  us, 
who  had  no  other  shelter,  lay  down  to  sleep  on  Mr. 
Wilder's  veranda.  Mr.  Wilder  was  always  so  ex- 
hausted by  his  hard  labor  during  the  day  that  he  slept 
soundly  as  soon  as  he  entered  his  room ;  but  that  night, 
because  we  were  lying  on  the  veranda,  he  came  out 
to  speak  to  us.  Just  then  a  shell  exploded  in  his  bed- 
room, several  pieces  falling  on  his  bed,  even  on  his 
pillow. 

The  dangers  and  temptations  of  those  weeks 
brought  out  some  beautiful  proofs  of  Christian  char- 
acter. The  work  demanded  of  the  Christians,  even  of 
those  who  had  never  been  accustomed  to  labor,  was 
very  heavy,  and  we  had  to  perform  the  most  menial 
tasks.  One  day  there  was  a  large  handleless  pail  over- 
flowing with  putrid  filthy  which  had  to  be  emptied. 
Pastor  Meng,  seizing  it  in  both  hands  without  showing 
a  sign  of  disgust,  carried  it  out  to  empty  it.  Hearing 
a  laugh  as  he  did  it,  he  said,  "If  Jesus  were  in  my 
place,  what  would  he  do?"  and  I  said,  "Even  as  you 
have  done,  and  joyfully,  like  you." 

One  evening  I  was  much  worn  out  with  the  unac- 
customed labors  of  the  day.  A  foreign  merchant  came 
up,  and  noting  my  unusual  size  said,  "Why  aren't  you 
drawing  a  cart?"  I  replied,  "I  fear  my  strength  is 
not  sufficient."  In  a  rage  he  seized  me  with  both  hands, 
and  giving  me  a  ferocious  kick,  sent  me  to  drag  a  cart, 
which  is  usually  drawn  by  two  men.  Mr.  Wilder, 
who  was  standing  by,  said,  "This  man  is  a  teacher." 
"If  he  were  an  official  he  'd  have  to  drag  that  cart," 
raged  the  merchant.  Huang  Shu  T'ang,  a  member 
of  our  senior  class  in  college,  stepped  forward,  saying, 


4i6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"I  will  help  you  pull  the  cart."  We  worked  a  long  time, 
other  carts  also  helping  to  build  the  barricades,  until 
all  the  streets  were  blocked  except  far  to  the  northwest. 
Most  of  the  other  carts  were  dismissed,  and  I  was 
made  to  drag  my  cart  quickly  to  this  place.  On  all 
sides  the  bullets  were  flying  like  rain.  Huang  Shu 
T'ang  and  I  worked  there  in  the  darkness  until  the 
barricade  was  finished,  and  the  other  carts  all  left. 
I  asked  the  merchant  if  I  might  leave,  but  he  scorn- 
fully ignored  me.  My  heart  was  in  a  tumult,  my  body 
was  completely  exhausted.  Crouching  down  with 
Huang  Shu  T'ang,  I  prayed  silently  to  my  loving 
Savior.  In  a  moment  my  body  was  free  from  pain 
and  weariness,  great  peace  filled  my  heart,  and  I  seemed 
to  have  left  earth  and  all  its  trials.  As  I  recall  this 
experience  the  rapture  of  that  moment  seems  to  come 
to  me  again.  And  I  can  never  forget  the  love  and 
unselfishness  of  Huang  Shu  T'ang  that  day. 

The  siege  of  the  Foreign  Settlement  in  Tientsin 
lasted  nearly  a  month;  then  the  allies  captured  the 
native  city,  and  our  enemies  scattered.  It  was  more 
than  a  month  longer  before  Peking  was  relieved.  Early 
in  September,  Dr.  Goodrich,  who  had  come  from  Pe- 
king, took  me  and  my  family  with  him  to  Shanghai. 
My  old  father  dreaded  the  sea  voyage,  so  I  left  Li  Wei 
to  care  for  him  in  Tientsin.  My  boy  had  greatly  en- 
deared himself  to  me  during  those  weeks  of  trial. 
Frail  in  body,  of  a  gentle,  quiet  disposition,  he  said 
little  of  his  religious  life,  but  by  loving  thoughtfulness 
for  his  grandfather  and  parents,  and  by  tender  care  for 
his  little  sisters,  he  showed  his  deep  Christian  character. 
In  his  unselfishness  he  took  on  his  slender  shoulders 
burdens  too  heavy  for  him  to  bear.  Working  in  the 
fortifications  in  the  hot  sun  was  hard  for  him,  for  he 
had  never  worked  before;   the   food   was   poor  and 


CHIXA'S  P>OOK  OF  MARTYRS      41? 

scarce ;  he  slept  part  of  the  time  in  a  damp,  foul  place. 
When  I  left  Tientsin  he  had  dysentery,  but  he  assured 
me  that  it  was  not  important.  He  tried  to  pull  his 
mother  and  little  sisters  to  the  station  in  a  jinriksha; 
but  the  perspiration  rolled  down  his  face,  he  stopped 
completely  exhausted,  and  I  went  to  his  relief.  We 
had  to  hurry  to  catch  the  train,  and  when  I  took  my 
last  glimpse  of  my  boy  through  the  car  window,  he 
was  walking  slowly  homeward,  looking  back  over  his 
shoulder  at  the  train. 

After  reaching  Shanghai  I  heard  that  Li  Wei  was 
working  in  the  American  hospital,  and  that  the  nurses 
were  much  pleased  with  his  faithfulness  and  diligence. 
Then  came  a  letter  from  Pastor  Meng  telling  me  that 
Li  Wei  had  gone  to  be  with  the  Lord.  He  had  never 
recovered  his  health  after  the  hardships  of  the  summer, 
and  after  a  severe  illness  of  several  days,  in  spite  of  all 
that  loving  care  could  do,  his  life  ebbed  away.  It  was 
late  in  September.  His  grandfather,  Pastor  Meng,  a 
classmate,  and  several  others  were  in  the  room.  Pastor 
Meng  said,  *'It  is  hard  to  understand  God's  ways.  If 
he  takes  you  now  in  your  youth,  does  it  not  grieve 
your  heart?"  With  a  smile  he  answered,  "I  want  so 
much  to  go  to  him."  Then  weakness  and  pain  over- 
came him,  and  his  grandfather  said,  "Let  us  pray  for 
you,  asking  the  Lord  to  come  quickly  and  take  you 
home."  So  Pastor  Meng  knelt  in  prayer ;  then  rising, 
he  and  one  of  the  students  sang,  "Heaven  is  my  home." 
Just  as  they  were  singing  the  words,  "I  shall  reach 
home  at  last,"  Li  Wei  went  to  his  heavenly  home. 
(This  bright,  beautiful  boy  is  not  counted  with  the 
Boxer  victims,  but  by  his  sufferings  during  the  siege 
and  by  his  trustfulness  in  his  Heavenly  Father,  he 
is  entitled  to  be  numbered  with  the  martyrs.) 
27 


4i8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 


IN   SHANTUNG 

Yuan  Shih  K'ai,  who  followed  the  infamous  Yii 
Hsien  as  governor  of  Shantung,  made  heroic  efforts 
to  suppress  the  Boxer  movement  inaugurated  by  his 
predecessor,  and  to  this  alone  is  due  the  fact  that  com- 
paratively few  lives  were  lost  in  this  province.  But 
nowhere  were  the  temptations  to  recant  more  seduc- 
tive, nowhere  was  the  persecution  more  prolonged.  The 
Christians  endured  two  years  of  constant  suspense,  of 
repeated  lootings,  of  homelessness  and  hunger.  In  a 
few  localities  the  sword  did  not  spare  them.  Several 
narratives  of  English  Baptist  Christians  in  the  Pin 
Chou  district  have  already  been  given,  and  two  are 
added  here. 

Mr.  Su,  who  lived  in  the  city  of  Pin  Chou,  when  he 
was  seized  and  bound  by  the  Boxers,  took  from  his 
belt  a  string  of  cash,  and,  handing  it  to  his  father,  said : 
"Your  son,  while  living,  has  not  been  able  to  manifest 
to  the  full  his  filial  devotion.  I  give  you  this  money 
toward  the  account  of  my  heart  indebtedness  to  you.*' 

Kneeling  he  prayed,  ''Heavenly  Father,  receive  my 
spirit."  Then  he  commenced  to  pray  earnestly  for  the 
Boxers.  As  soon  as  his  words  fell  on  their  ears  they 
exclaimed  in  a  rage,  "You  thing,  you !  When  about 
to  die  do  you  still  revile  us?"  And  the  cruel  swords 
sent  him  into  the  presence  of  his  Heavenly  Father. 

At  a  village  in  this  same  district  old  Mr.  Li  was 
hunted  down  in  his  peach-orchard.  The  Boxers  asked, 
"How  many  in  this  village  have  studied  the  foreign 
doctrine?"  "Just  my  own  family,"  replied  the  old 
man,  shrinking  from  implicating  others.  "Hereafter 
will  you  continue  to  study  or  not  ?"  Bowing  his  head 
he  thought  for  a  moment,  then  looking  his  persecutors 
in  the  face  he  said  with  a  loud,  clear  voice,  "Though 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      419 

you  kill  nie  for  it,  yet  do  I  propose  to  study  the  doc- 
trine."    And  they  did  kill  him  for  it. 

IN  Hurici 

In  the  Hcnc^  Chou  prefecture  alone  thirty  places 
of  worship  belonging  to  the  London  mission  were  de- 
stroyed. The  Christians  showed  a  splendid  fidelity. 
From  all  the  outstations  in  this  province  there  came 
but  one  report — that  the  Christians  had  remained  im- 
movable. 

IN  CHEKIANG 

Mr.  Shoemaker,  of  the  Presbyterian  mission  m 
Ningpo,  writes : 

"While  hostilities  against  the  Christians  in  this  re- 
gion did  not  result  in  any  loss  of  life,  yet  in  many 
instances  the  test  of  faith  was  no  less  severe  than  where 
thiC  outpouring  of  the  life's  blood  sealed  the  testimony 
with  the  indisputable  stamp  of  genuineness.  Escape 
seemed  to  lie  within  the  reach  of  all  who  would  deny 
their  connection  with  the  religion  of  Jesus. 

"At  a  church  in  a  rather  lawless  neighborhood  near 
the  seacoast,  several  Christians  were  captured  and  held 
for  lansom.  One  of  them  was  swung  up  by  his  hands, 
v;hich  were  bound  together  behind  his  back,  and  re- 
peatedly threatened  with  death.  He  did  not  cease  to 
exhort  tho^e  about  him  to  accept  the  gospel  and  wor- 
ship the  true  God.  His  friends  finally  paid  the  ransom 
demanded.  During  these  days  of  suspense  and  dread, 
the  attendance  on  the  Sabbath  services  was  larger  than 
usual.  The  Christians  seemed  to  draw  close  to  God 
as  their  only  source  of  help.  In  the  Ningpo  church 
some  were  timid,  a  few  fell  away,  but  the  oiler  con- 
verts all  dicod  firm.  One  poor,  blind  fellow  was 
roughly  dealt  with  by  his  neighbors,  but  his  faith  was 


420      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

firrn.  Anothci  member,  who  is  a  cripple,  was  so  bold 
in  preacliing  on  the  streets  when  the  danger  was  most 
imminent  that  other  Christians  urged  him  not  to  run 
unnecessary  risks.  He  replied,  *If  we  stop  preaching 
now  as  soon  as  the  danger  comes,  how  can  we  have 
any  face  to  preach  again  after  the  danger  is  past  ?'  An 
old  woman  of  seventy-seven,  who  had  been  a  Christian 
for  forty  years,  was  comforted  by  her  neighbors,  who 
said  to  her,  'You  have  set  before  us  all  these  years  an 
example  which  we  could  not  come  up  to,  and  we  will 
see  that  no  harm  comes  to  you  on  account  of  your 
religion.'  In  all  our  Churches  the  Christians  were 
threatened,  ridiculed,  and  mocked ;  and  yet,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  they  stood  firm,  and  ceased  not  to  go  regu- 
larly to  their  appointed  places  of  worship.  They  met 
the  crisis  bravely,  and  would  not  have  hesitated  to  give 
their  lives  if  they  had  been  required. 

"About  two  hundred  miles  south  of  Ningpo,  in  this 
province,  Christians  belonging  to  the  China  Inland 
Mission  showed  the  same  stanch  faith.  Over  four 
hundred  families  of  Christians  and  inquirers  suffered 
property  loss,  many  being  stripped  of  all  their  posses- 
sions. Their  lives  were  threatened,  and  dozens  of  them 
lived  in  mountain  caves  to  escape  violence.  Some  died 
from  the  fright  and  hardship  of  those  months,  but 
only  one  was  actually  killed. 

"Ah  Sai  En  Pa  was  over  sixty  years  old  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  The  earnest  old  preacher  was  much 
loved  by  the  Christians,  who  knew  him  as  a  man  of 
prayer.  Before  starting  out  to  his  work  in  the  morn- 
ing he  used  to  pray  three  times,  because,  as  he  said, 
Christ  prayed  three  times  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane. 
He  urged  the  older  Christians  to  much  prayer,  saying 
that  the  young  and  strong  slept  soundly  all  night ; 
but  those  who  were  advanced  in  years  were  wakeful 


CPIINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS      421 

during  the  night,  or  wakened  very  early  in  the  morn- 
ing; and  this  was  an  indication  that  God  would  have 
them  use  these  waking  moments  in  prayer. 

"At  the  time  of  the  persecution  he  was  stationed 
at  one  of  the  centers  where  the  Boxers  met  for  drill, 
and  they  early  began  to  threaten  old  Ah  Sai  En  Pa 
with  violence ;  but  the  gentry  and  scholars  managed 
to  prevent  any  trouble  until  the  proclamation  of  the 
empress  dowager  for  the  extermination  of  the  for- 
eigners and  the  foreign  religion  was  made  public  by 
one  of  the  leading  officials  of  the  district.  Hearing 
that  he  was  in  actual  danger,  he  tried  to  escape  by 
the  river,  but  did  not  succeed.  Late  the  same  evening 
one  of  the  Boxers  worked  himself  into  a  frenzy  and 
declared  that  they  must  have  a  human  sacrifice,  in 
order  to  set  up  their  flag  of  rebellion,  so  they  went  and 
took  old  Ah  Sai  En  Pa.  They  carried  him  to  a  quiet 
temple,  and,  first  of  all,  tried  to  make  him  worship  the 
idols.  This  he  refused  to  do,  and  then  they  said  he 
must  die.  He  asked  time  for  prayer ;  but  before  he 
had  finished  they  began  cutting  at  his  neck  with  their 
blunt  swords.  The  murderers  were  afterwards  heard 
to  say  that  he  was  still  praying  when  his  head  was 
half  severed  from  his  body." 

"  Crowns  and  thrones  may  perish,  kingdoms  rise  and  wane, 
But  the  Church  of  Jesus  constant  will  remain; 
Gates  of  hell  can  never  'gainst  that  Church  prevail ; 
We  have  Christ's  own  promise,  and  that  can  not  fail," 


CHAPTER  XI 
MARTYR  DAYS  IN  SHANSI 

"Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ?  shall  tribu- 
lation, or  anguish,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or 
peril,  or  sword?" 

The:  slaughter  of  Protestants  in  Shansi  was  not 
as  terrible  as  the  slaughter  of  Roman  Catholics.  The 
known  losses  are  156  in  the  China  Inland  mission, 
112  in  the  English  Baptist  mission,  and  80  in  the 
American  Board  mission,  while  the  martyrs  in  smaller 
missions  would  bring  the  total  up  to  over  400.  The 
fidelity  of  many  Christians  in  this  province  is  remark- 
able for  two  reasons;  with  few  exceptions,  perfect  im- 
munity from  persecution  was  assured  to  all  who  obeyed 
the  governor's  orders  to  leave  the  Church ;  it  was  the 
first  generation  of  Christians  who  had  to  stand  the  test, 
so  none  of  those  in  mature  life  had  known  Christ  in 
their  childhood. 

MISS   CHANGES   WONDER^UI,  DELIVERANCE) 

Chang  Wen  Ts'ui  was  always  a  winsome  lassie, 
with  a  sparkle  of  fun  in  her  eyes,  and  an  alert,  inde- 
pendent poise  of  the  shapely  head  with  its  smooth,  dark 
hair.  When  she  blossomed  into  womanhood  and  grad- 
uated from  the  Bridgman  School  in  1899,  no  one  was 
more  beloved  of  both  schoolmates  and  teachers.  There 
came  a  call  for  some  one  to  teach  in  a  girls'  boarding- 
school  in  the  Shou  Yang  mission  in  Tai  Yuan  Fu,along, 
hard  journey  of  two  weeks  across  the  mountains.    The 

422 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      423 

lady  who  came  in  search  of  a  helper  was  a  stranger 
bclon<:];ini]^  to  an  English  mission.  The  long  journey 
and  the  untried  work  must  have  looked  formidable  to 
the  young  girl,  who  had  never  left  the  shelter  of  home 
and  boarding-school;  but  with  a  true  missionary  spirit 
she  responded  to  the  call,  and  in  a  few  weeks  brave 
Wen  Ts'ui  was  in  the  capital  of  Shansi,  surrounded  by 
girls  who  soon  came  to  know  and  love  her. 

Miss  Coombs,  the  lady  in  charge  of  the  school,  had 
been  in  China  only  a  few  months,  and  how  much  Wen 
Ts'ui's  efficient  help  meant  to  her  is  shown  by  a  passage 
in  her  journal.  Writing  of  one  of  the  schoolgirls,  a 
sister  of  K'ung  Hsiang  Hsi,  who  had  just  given  her 
heart  to  Christ,  she  says:  "Humanly  speaking,  she 
is  Wen  Ts'ui's  convert,  and  Wen  Ts'ui  is  winning  many 
converts  for  her  crown.  Her  influence  almost  shames 
me  as  I  think  of  former  days,  and  her  life  causes  me 
constant  admiration.  She  is  only  twenty-one,  and  is 
betrothed  to  a  Chihli  student.  Without  her,  my  work 
here  would  be  practically  impossible.  Ignorance  of 
custom  and  language  are  a  constant  bar  between  me 
and  the  children,  and  women  too.  But  Wen  Ts'ui  and 
I  understand  one  another  wonderfully.  She  is  indeed 
my  right  hand.  We  are  friends,  and  talk  freely  to- 
gether, and  pray  together  about  all  the  encouragements 
and  the  difficulties." 

So  a  year  passed  peacefully,  then  came  mutterings 
of  the  approaching  storm.  Still  no  shadow  fell  over 
Wen  Ts'ui's  heart,  full  of  hope  and  of  faith  in  the  God 
who  had  never  failed  her,  and  the  danger  came  to  her 
very  door  before  she  realized  it. 

Now  we  will  give  the  story  in  her  own  words : 

"It  was  the  27th  of  June,  a  hot,  dusty  day,  when  we 
closed  school,  and  the  pupils  who  lived  in  the  city  at 
once  went  to  their  homes.     Eleven  were  still  with  us, 


424      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

waiting  for  friends  to  come  for  them.  Weary  with  the 
last  days  of  school,  and  not  feeling  at  all  well,  I  lay 
down  most  of  the  afternoon,  and  was  sleeping  peace- 
fully at  five  o'clock,  when  men  and  boys  began  to 
gather  outside  the  compound  gate.  Serious  trouble 
was  not  anticipated,  and  no  one  woke  me.  At  six 
o'clock  Miss  Coombs  went  to  Mrs.  Stokes's  house  for 
the  evening  meal,  and  soon  a  message  came  that  we 
were  all  to  go  at  once  to  Dr.  Lovitt's  court,  as  the 
Boxers  had  come  in  force.  I  was  wakened,  and  has- 
tened with  my  eleven  pupils  into  this  innermost  court 
of  the  compound,  where  all  of  the  missionaries  soon 
joined  us.  The  yelling  crowd  at  the  gate  increased, 
and  soon  the  bookshop  of  the  front  chapel  was  in 
flames.  God  helped  us  by  sending  a  shower  which 
put  out  the  fire ;  but  soon  it  was  kindled  again,  burning 
the  chapel,  the  hospital,  our  school-buildings,  and  two 
missionary  homes.  By  nine  o'clock  the  flames  had 
crept  close  to  the  place  where  we  were  hiding.  The 
missionaries  unlocked  a  little  gate  opening  upon  an 
unoccupied  piece  of  ground,  and  urged  all  of  the  Chi- 
nese Christians  to  escape ;  but  one  old  man  named 
Lao  Chen,  myself,  and  the  schoolgirls  still  remained. 
About  ten  o'clock  the  mob  set  fire  to  Dr.  Lovitt's  house, 
and  we  fied  to  our  last  refuge,  a  tiny  kitchen  close 
to  the  back  wall  of  the  compound,  where  twenty-one  of 
us  gathered.  All  this  time  my  heart  was  perfectly 
calm,  and  I  seemed  to  hear  a  loving  voice  saying,  'I 
will  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee.' 

"An  hour  passed;  the  flames  would  soon  kindle 
on  our  little  shelter,  and  our  last  forlorn  hope  lay  in 
flight.  Dr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Stokes  guarded  the  rear, 
the  other  missionaries  walked  in  front,  and  behind  them 
followed  the  schoolgirls,  with  Mis5  Coombs  leading  a 
lame  schoolgirl,  and  Lao  Chen  carrying  a  sick  girl 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      425 

who  was  too  weak  to  walk.  Hastening  through  the 
south  court  we  came  to  the  large  court,  no  one  hinder- 
ing us.  Though  there  were  flames  on  four  sides  of  us, 
we  walked  through  the  midst  with  safety,  and  came 
to  the  great  gateway  leading  to  the  street.  This  was 
ten  feet  wide  ;  but  in  the  middle  the  Boxers  had  made 
a  great  bonfire  to  cut  off  our  avenue  of  escape.  Only 
a  passage  of  a  little  over  three  feet  was  left  at  one 
side,  and  Mrs.  Lovitt's  dress  caught  fire  as  we  passed ; 
but  it  was  soon  extinguished,  and  the  beautiful  prom- 
ise came  to  me,  'When  thou  walkest  through  the  fire 
thou  shalt  not  be  burned.'  As  the  missionaries  went 
through  the  gate,  the  rabble  crowded  upon  them,  one 
man  blocking  the  path  until  a  shot  from  a  revolver 
carried  by  one  of  the  missionaries  laid  him  on  the 
ground.  I  could  not  see  those  in  front  of  me  for  the 
dense  smoke,  and  could  hear  nothing  but  the  howling 
of  the  mob  as  they  scattered  after  a  few  more  shots 
were  fired  into  the  air.  I  was  too  weak  to  keep  up  with 
the  missionaries  and  schoolgirls  in  front,  and  still  fur- 
ther back  were  Miss  Coombs  with  the  lame  girl,  and 
the  old  man  staggering  under  the  weight  of  the  sick 
scholar.  In  the  confusion  the  other  missionaries  did 
not  notice  that  Miss  Coombs  was  not  with  them.  Near 
the  gate  I  stumbled  over  the  body  of  the  man  who  had 
been  shot,  and,  seeing  no  one  whom  I  knew  when  I 
rose  to  my  feet  again,  I  walked  to  the  corner  of  the 
street,  where  I  waited  in  the  darkness  until  I  heard  the 
sick  scholar  calling  my  name,  and  soon  the  old  man 
came  with  her  on  his  shoulder.  'Where  is  Miss 
Coombs  ?'  I  asked.  'We  saw  men  drag  her  back  toward 
the  fire,  and  then  saw  nothing  more  of  her,'  said  the 
girl,  sadly. 

"I  heard  afterwards  of  Miss  Coombs's  fate,  and 
will  tell  you  now.    She  was  struck  on  the  head  with  a 


426      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

brick,  and  both  she  and  the  lame  girl  fell.  She  said  to 
the  girl,  'Do  n't  be  afraid ;  we  shall  soon  see  Jesus.' 
She  then  rose  and  begged  them  to  spare  the  girl's  life, 
and  some  one  led  the  girl  away.  Then  they  threw  Miss 
Coombs  on  the  fire  in  the  gateway,  and  when  twice  she 
rose  out  of  the  flames,  they  heaped  a  door  and  tables 
and  boards  on  top  of  her.  A  young  official,  Mr.  K'ung, 
went  with  another  man  to  look  for  her  the  next  day, 
and  found  only  a  few  charred  bones  which  they  buried 
amid  the  ruins  of  the  mission  compound.  Just  at  the 
time  when  the  flames  were  devouring  this  living  sacri- 
fice, two  Christians  who  had  escaped  from  the  com- 
pound, but  who  were  on  neighboring  housetops,  said 
they  seemed  to  see  the  heavens  opened  just  above  the 
fire,  and  a  beautiful  face  looked  down.  They  did  not 
know  then  what  had  happened  to  our  beloved  teacher ; 
but  I  think  they  were  looking  into  the  face  of  the 
Pitiful  One,  who  had  come  to  welcome  his  child  as 
she  went  up  in  the  chariot  of  fire. 

''The  old  man  was  too  tired  to  walk  on  with  his 
burden,  and  we  sat  on  a  doorstep  in  the  dark,  deserted 
street  for  a  long  time,  half  hoping  that  Miss  Coombs 
would  come.  A  man  came  by  with  a  lantern,  and  stood 
for  a  minute  throwing  its  light  into  my  face.  I  must 
have  made  a  strange  picture.  Both  shoes  had  been  lost 
in  my  flight,  and  my  hair  was  all  disheveled  as  I  rose 
from  my  afternoon's  sleep.  It  was  after  three  in  the 
morning  when,  after  slowly  making  our  way  through 
streets  and  alleys,  we  reached  the  home  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Beynon,  who  gave  us  a  warm  welcome.  This  was 
not  far  from  Mr.  Farthing's  place,  where  the  mission- 
aries had  taken  refuge. 

"I  had  taken  cold  in  the  chill  night  air,  and  for 
three  days  my  throat  was  so  sore  that  I  could  eat 
nothing.    After  staying  part  of  a  day  at  Mr.  Beynon's, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      427 

I  went  with  the  sick  girl  and  her  mother  to  her  home. 
Many  people  stared  at  ir.e  as  we  passed  through  the 
street,  and  I  heard  them  saying,  'She  is  English;  she 
does  n't  look  like  us.'  By  this  time  there  was  much 
bad  talk  in  the  city,  and  when  we  reached  the  house 
of  my  friends,  the  landlord  would  not  let  me  stay ;  so 
I  started  out  into  the  street  again ;  but  they  called  to 
me  to  wait  until  dark,  when  it  would  be  safer  to  go. 
In  the  evening  the  official,  Mr.  K'ung,  and  a  Chris- 
tian man  took  me  to  another  home  in  the  city ;  but  their 
landlord  also  objected  to  my  remaining  there,  and  on 
the  2d  of  July  Mr.  Beynon  sent  for  me  to  come  back 
to  them.  They  treated  me  like  their  own  daughter, 
and  I  did  not  want  to  leave  them.  Three  days  later 
the  missionaries  received  a  message  from  the  governor, 
Yii  Hsien,  saying  that  if  they  would  go  to  a  certain 
place,  near  his  yamen,  he  would  protect  them,  but  that 
he  could  give  them  no  protection  if  they  refused  to  go. 
The  missionaries  were  perplexed  to  know  what  to  do, 
and  so  was  I ;  but  I  thought  I  would  stay  with  them, 
wherever  they  were.  To  my  surprise,  Mr.  K'ung  and 
the  Christian  who  had  befriended  me  before,  came  for 
me  that  night  at  nine  o'clock,  and,  though  I  was  re- 
luctant to  leave  the  missionaries,  Mrs.  Beynon  urged 
me  to  go.  I  went  with  them,  thinking  of  God's  prom- 
ise to  Jacob,  *I  am  with  thee,  and  will  keep  thee  in  all 
places  whither  thou  goest.' 

My  friends  took  me  to  the  home  of  a  wealthy  Chris- 
tian photographer,  Mr.  Chu,  and  there,  on  the  8th  of 
July,  we  heard  that  all  of  the  missionaries  had  gone 
to  the  place  near  the  governor's  yamen.  The  next 
day  a  Christian  young  man  came  running  into  Mr. 
Chu's,  pale  with  excitement.  He  had  started  down 
the  street  by  the  governor's  yamen,  on  his  way  to  sec 
the  imprisoned  missionaries,  when  he  was  startled  to 


428      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

see  them  coming  up  the  street  in  a  long  line,  each  with 
a  rope  tied  tightly  around  his  forehead  and  passing 
back  to  the  next  one.  Men,  women,  and  children,  they 
formed  a  strange  procession.  'And  they  must  have 
been  marching  to  their  death,'  he  said,  'for  that  is  the 
way  they  lead  condemned  criminals  out  to  execution.' 
We  heard  later  that  thirty-three  Protestant  mission- 
aries, twelve  Roman  Catholic  missionaries,  and  several 
native  Christians  were  slaughtered  together  that  day  at 
the  governor's  order. 

''Then  for  days  there  was  a  carnival  of  crime,  as 
Catholics  and  Protestants  were  cut  down  by  scores. 
Our  trouble  came  the  very  next  morning.  At  about 
ten  o'clock  a  mob  broke  in,  and  began  to  loot  the  pho- 
tograph gallery.  I  fled,  with  Mr.  Chu's  family  and  an 
old  Mongol  lady  named  Miao,  through  two  or  three 
quadrangles  of  buildings  to  a  court  in  the  very  rear  of 
the  compound.  We  could  hear  the  mob  shouting  and 
smashing  the  furniture,  and  knew  they  would  soon  be 
upon  us.  There  was  no  gateway  by  which  we  could 
escape,  and  the  house  was  a  high  one.  Mr.  Chu  piled 
up  tables  and  benches  and  while  he  was  helping  his 
family  up  on  the  roof,  Mrs.  Miao  and  /  scrambled  onto 
the  window-ledge.  How  could  we  ever  reach  that  high 
roof?  It  seemed  as  if  wings  were  given  us;  for  even 
fat  Mrs.  Miao,  so  clumsy  that  she  could  hardly  climb 
a  doorstep,  went  up  without  the  least  trouble.  From 
this  high  house  we  climbed  down  onto  smaller  houses, 
then  over  a  low  wall  into  a  deserted,  dirty  stableyard  be- 
longing to  a  neighbor.    Here  we  hid  as  best  we  could. 

"At  noon  friends  came  for  the  Chu's,  and  Mrs. 
Miao  and  I  were  left  alone.  Mr.  Chu  promised  to  come 
back  for  us  after  dark,  but  it  grew  late,  and  the 
owner  of  the  place  would  not  let  us  stay  longer,  so  we 
could  only  go  out  upon  the  street.     It  seemed  very 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      429 

weird  and  sad  wandering  about  those  strange  streets, 
for  I  did  not  know  a  single  place  in  that  great  city 
except  my  school  home.  Mrs.  Miao  said,  'I  know  some 
Christian  homes;  let  us  go  there,  and  see  if  they  are 
still  alive,  and  if  they  will  take  us  in.'  They  would  not 
let  us  in  at  the  first  place;  then  we  went  to  the  room 
occupied  by  a  cook  at  the  mission  and  his  family.  We 
found  a  tiny  kitchen  in  the  same  court,  where  we  could 
lodge  one  night  by  giving  ten  cents ;  but  the  landlord 
would  not  keep  us  any  longer,  and  moreover  we  had 
no  money  for  rent.  Xet  us  go  to  Mr.  Chang's,'  said 
Mrs.  Miao;  'perhaps  they  will  pity  us.'  And  they  did; 
but  after  we  had  been  there  only  two  or  three  days  the 
rumor  spread  that  a  fat  old  lady  and  a  girl,  both  Chris- 
tians, were  living  with  the  Changs.  Our  room  was 
close  to  the  street,  and  on  the  13th  of  July  we  heard  a 
band  of  Boxers  coming.  But  close  at  their  heels  came 
the  police  official  in  charge  of  that  district.  'What  are 
you  doing  here?'  he  said.  'This  Chang  family  has  al- 
ready given  up  the  false  doctrine  in  obedience  to  the 
command  of  the  government,  and  burned  incense. 
They  are  now  good  citizens  and  must  not  be  molested,' 
and  he  showed  a  document  to  prove  that  they  had  re- 
canted. The  Boxers  had  no  proof  that  other  Christians 
were  concealed  there,  and  we  raised  our  hearts  in  a 
prayer  of  thankfulness  as  we  heard  their  retreating 
footsteps. 

"But  the  landlord  knew  now  that  I  was  living  with 
the  Changs,  and  refused  to  let  me  stay.  Mr. 
Chang  said,  *I  will  take  you  to  a  village  eight  miles 
from  here,  where  I  know  a  family  who,  I  think,  will 
conceal  you.'  V^ery,  very  early  the  next  morning  Mr. 
Chang  took  me  in  a  covered  cart  to  the  city  gate ;  then, 
as  the  cart  would  not  take  us  any  further,  we  walked. 
Not  daring  to  go  in  the  main  road,  we  followed  the 


430      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

pebbly  river-bed.  I  was  not  used  to  walking,  and  my 
shoes  were  an  old  pair  with  very  thin  soles,  which  had 
been  given  me.  After  walking  about  three  miles  my 
feet  were  so  sore  that  I  could  not  possibly  take  another 
step.  God  had  provided  a  strange  resting-place  for  me 
there.  It  was  a  sort  of  excavated  village,  consisting  of 
about  a  hundred  cellar-rooms,  approached  by  a  very  nar- 
row passage,  easily  guarded.  It  had  been  prepared  as  a 
place  of  refuge  from  robbers.  Making  our  way  in,  we 
learned  that  only  two  families  were  living  there.  We 
found  the  man  in  charge,  and  begged  him  to  let  me  stay 
in  one  of  the  cellars.  He  said  kindly :  'The  other  cel- 
lars have  not  been  occupied  for  years,  and  are  not  fit  to 
live  in.  You  had  better  stay  in  my  house.  There  are 
no  Boxers  here.  The  young  lady  can  stay  with  my 
wife  until  all  is  peaceful  in  the  city.' 

**In  this  house  I  rested  for  nine  or  ten  days.  Mr. 
K'ung  and  other  friends  in  the  city,  not  knowing  my 
exact  whereabouts  and  hearing  nothing  from  me,  grew 
very  uneasy,  and  finally  sought  me  out  in  my  strange 
hiding-place.  The  next  day,  the  24th  of  July^,  he  came 
for  me  in  a  cart,  and  took  me  to  his  home  in  Tai  Yuan 
Fu.  And  now  I  must  tell  more  about  this  God-given 
friend,  who  had  come  to  my  rescue  more  than  once,  and 
whose  home  was  to  shelter  me  for  eight  long  months. 
Mr.  K'ung  was  a  man  of  about  thirty,  belonging  to  the 
official  class,  though  not  at  this  time  holding  any  im- 
portant office.  He  attended  church  quite  regularly,  and 
was  a  true  believer,  but  he  had  not  yet  been  baptized. 
He  had  a  sweet  wife  and  a  little  girl  two  years  old. 
The  officials  knew  of  his  leanings  toward  Christianity ; 
but  his  position  and  wealth,  and  the  fact  that  he  had 
not  been  baptized,  screened  him.  Again  and  again  the 
Boxers  threatened  his  life ;  but  they  never  ventured  to 
invade  his  home. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      431 

"These  friends  treated  me  like  a  beloved  sister,  and 
no  suffering  or  privation  came  to  me  all  these  months 
except  ^ricf  for  my  martyred  friends,  for  the  perse- 
cuted Christians  about  me,  for  father,  mother,  broth- 
ers, sister,  teachers,  and  friends  in  the  home  across  the 
mountains,  who,  I  supposed,  had  all  been  killed.  Here 
nearly  every  day  stories  reached  us  of  the  cruel  tor- 
ture of  native  Christians,  and  of  the  massacre  of  com- 
pany after  company  of  missionaries  in  our  province  of 
Shansi.  In  Tai  Ku,  thirty-seven  miles  away,  lived 
Ruth,  who  had  graduated  from  the  Bridgman  School 
one  year  after  I  did,  and,  like  myself,  had  come  to 
Shansi  to  teach  in  a  girls'  boarding-school.  A  man 
who  came  from  Tai  Ku  late  in  July  told  me  that, 
though  in  great  danger,  the  missionaries  and  Ruth  were 
still  living.  A  few  days  later  a  young  man  came  and 
told  us  that  he  fled  from  that  compound  when  the 
houses  were  all  ablaze,  and  that  our  friends  there  were 
numbered  with  the  martyrs. 

"Later  a  new  governor  was  appointed  in  place  of 
Yii  Hsien,  and  proclamations  were  posted  command- 
ing the  Boxers  to  disperse.  Persecution  of  the  home- 
less, starving  Christian  remnant  ceased.  The  emperor 
and  court  staid  in  Tai  Yuan  Fu  quite  a  long  time,  on 
their  flight  from  Peking  to  Hsi  An  Fu. 

"In  January  a  great  joy  came  to  me.  A  Shansi 
Christian  returned  from  a  trip  to  Peking  with  news 
about  many  friends  whom  I  had  mourned  as  dead ;  for 
I  had  supposed  that  I  alone  was  saved  of  all  the  Chris- 
tians belonging  to  the  province  of  Chihli,  and  that  all 
of  the  missionaries  there  had  been  slain.  Still  this  man 
knew  nothing  about  my  own  family. 

"Late  in  March  came  a  day  of  mingled  joy  and  sad- 
ness, when  my  brother.  Wen  Tou,  was  led  in  to  see  me. 
A   few   hurried   questions,   then   I   knew   that   father, 


432      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF'  MARTYRS 

mother,  and  my  younger  brother  had  been  killed  at  my 
home,  far  south  of  Peking,  My  sister.  Wen  Mei,  who 
was  studying  in  the  Bridgman  School,  and  this  brother, 
a  student  in  the  North  China  Academy,  had  passed  with 
the  missionaries  through  the  siege  of  Peking. 

''My  brother  told  me  how  for  months  they  supposed 
that  I  was  dead.  Then  a  Christian  who  managed  to 
make  his  way  through  to  Peking  reported  that  he  had 
heard  it  rumored  that  I  had  been  saved  by  an  official 
in  Tai  Yuan  Fu.  Later  messengers  confirmed  this  re- 
port. But  what  plan  could  be  devised  for  getting  me 
safely  through  the  disorderly  soldier  bands  and  bandit 
swarms  of  Shansi,  and  then  over  the  Chihli  plains, 
ravaged  by  German  and  French  soldiers  ?  Finally  Miss 
Russell  had  hired  a  mule  litter  to  start  from  Peking  for 
me,  sending  an  older  man  to  accompany  my  brother. 

*'Mr.  K'ung  was  away  from  home  when  these  friends 
came  for  me,  attending  to  the  burial  of  missionaries  in 
a  distant  city.  Mrs.  K'ung  proposed  to  go  with  me, 
that  I  might  travel  in  greater  security ;  so  we  waited  for 
her  to  send  a  message  to  her  husband.  The  answer 
came  that  she  might  go.  Because  she  was  going  with 
me,  the  Tai  Yuan  Fu  officials  sent  two  soldiers  to  guard 
us  on  the  long  journey  through  Shansi,  and  gave  us  a 
yellow-dragon  flag,  which  would  make  the  robbers 
doubly  afraid  to  molest  us.  It  was  the  4th  of  April 
when  we  set  forth  on  the  dangerous  journey.  We 
could  not  go  back  over  the  direct  road  through  Pao 
Ting  Fu ;  for  the  mountain  passes  swarmed  with  Chi- 
nese soldiers,  and  beyond  were  hundreds  of  French  and 
German  soldiers.  So  we  went  northeast  toward  Kal- 
gan.  On  the  borders  of  Chihli  our  two  soldier  guards 
must  turn  back,  and  now  we  faced  two  dangers,  rob- 
bers and  foreign  soldiers. 

"One  day,  as  we  were  journeying  on  the  great  road 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      433 

between  Kalgan  and  Poking,  Mrs.  K'ung",  her  child, 
and  I  in  the  mule  Htter,  my  brother  and  the  older  man 
riding  on  donkeys,  we  saw  about  twenty  German  sol- 
diers approaching.  The  man  driving  the  mule  litter 
was  wild  with  fear;  but  I  lifted  my  heart  in  prayer, 
and  kept  calm.  Fortunately  an  officer  was  with  the  sol- 
diers, and  a  Chinese  interpreter.  My  brother  gave 
them  the  letters,  written  in  two  or  three  languages, 
which  he  had  brought  from  Peking,  asking  any  foreign 
soldiers  whom  we  might  meet  on  the  way  not  to  molest 
us,  as  we  were  Christians.  Soon  the  officer  and  his  in- 
terpreter appeared  at  the  door  of  my  litter.  'Are  you 
Christians?'  they  asked.  'Yes,'  I  said.  The  door  was 
closed,  the  soldiers  mounted  their  horses,  and  we 
went  on  our  way  in  peace. 

"About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  20th  of 
April  our  litter  turned  down  the  street  in  Peking  where 
our  mission  had  once  stood,  and  stopped  at  a  gateway 
not  far  from  its  ruins.  My  brother  had  gone  ahead  to 
tell  the  good  news  of  our  arrival,  and  before  I  could 
get  out  of  my  litter  Miss  Russell  and  my  sister,  Wen 
Mei,  were  beside  me.  How  can  I  describe  the  meet- 
ing with  them,  and  later  with  the  dear  school  friends 
who  had  survived  the  storm  ? 

"To-day  I  want  to  praise  God  in  the  words  of  Psa. 
civ,  4-8 :  'They  wandered  in  the  wilderness  in  a  solitary 
way;  they  found  no  city  to  dwell  in.  Hungry  and 
thirsty,  their  soul  fainted  in  them.  Then  they  cried 
unto  the  Lord  in  their  trouble,  and  he  delivered  them 
out  of  their  distresses.  And  he  led  them  forth  by  the 
right  way,  that  they  might  go  to  a  city  of  habitation. 
O,  that  men  would  praise  the  Lord  for  his  goodness, 
and  for  his  wonderful  works  to  the  children  of  men !'  " 

So  Wen  Ts'ui  ends  her  own  story.  P)Ut  we  must 
close  it  to  the  sound  of  wedding-bells  or  their  Chinese 
28 


434      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF^  MARTYRS 

substitutes.  There  was  a  noble  young  man  who  waited 
all  those  months  in  deep  anxiety  for  tidings  of  the  sweet 
girl  who  had  promised  to  be  his  wife.  Chinese  eti- 
quette forbade  his  speaking  of  her  except  to  his  most 
intimate  friends ;  but  he  helped  to  make  the  plans  for 
her  rescue,  and  the  day  when  she  arrived  in  Peking 
all  the  etiquette  of  the  Orient  could  not  keep  his  face 
from  beaming  with  joy.  On  the  14th  of  June  there 
was  a  wedding  in  the  mission,  and  many  were  the 
friends  who  rejoiced  with  these  two  who  had  escaped  so 
marvelously.  Wang  Wen  Shun  graduated  from  the 
Theological  Seminary  just  before  the  Boxer  outbreak, 
and  was  in  the  legations  during  the  siege.  Extracts 
from  his  story  are  given  in  Chapter  III.  Theirs  is  a 
very  happy  home,  and  our  Wen  Ts'ui  will  always  be  a 
help  to  her  husband  in  his  work  as  an  evangelist.  They 
are  now  in  charge  of  the  outstation  at  Lu  Kou  Ch'i-ao. 

MISS  coomb's  SCH00I.GIRr.S 

Two  of  the  girls  whose  escape  from  the  burning 
mission  Wen  Ts'ui  has  described  in  the  preceding  nar- 
rative were  taken  by  the  Shou  Yang  magistrate  to  their 
homes.  One  of  these,  a  girl  named  Pu  T'ao,  came  from 
a  home  where  both  father  and  mother  were  earnest 
Christians.  They  were  very  fond  of  their  daughter, 
who  was  one  of  the  brightest  students  in  the  Tai  Yuan 
Fu  school.  Once,  when  Pu  T'ao  returned  home  for 
a  vacation,  the  neighbors  constantly  ridiculed  her  un- 
bound feet,  and,  in  order  to  help  her  bear  the  persecu- 
tion, her  mother  unbound  her  own  feet.  Sad  indeed 
was  the  last  home-going  of  the  girl ;  for  she  found  that 
father,  mother,  and  elder  sister  had  all  been  killed 
by  the  Boxers. 

Five  of  the  girls  were  separated  from  the  mission- 
aries in  their  flight  in  the  darkness.    They  reached  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      435 

east  gate  of  the  city,  but  were  turned  back  by  Manchu 
soldiers,  and,  after  hours  of  wandering  on  the  city 
streets,  they  were  taken  to  the  yamen  of  the  district 
magistrate. 

"Why  do  you  follow  the  foreigners?"  he  asked, 
sternly. 

"We  do  not  follow  the  foreigners ;  we  follow  God." 

"Why  do  you  read  the  foreigners'  books?" 

"We  read  God's  Book." 

"Why  have  you  got  your  feet  unbound?" 

"Because  God  never  meant  that  we  should  have 
crippled  feet." 

"What  do  you  gain  by  all  this?" 

"We  gain  Christ  and  eternal  life." 

For  about  three  months  these  girls  were  sheltered 
and  fed  in  this  yamen ;  then  they  were  sent  to  their 
homes. 

MR.  WANG's  story 

Mr.  Wang  was  an  evangelist  in  Northern  Shansi, 
in  the  Swedish  Union  mission,  which  was  affiliated 
with  the  China  Inland  mission.  From  his  long  and 
interesting  story,  as  published  in  China's  Millions 
for  January,  1901,  only  extracts  are  taken,  and  for  the 
sake  of  conciseness  some  changes  are  made.  Speaking 
of  a  magistrate  who  protected  the  missionaries,  and 
sent  them  away  under  guard,  though  it  led  to  his  being 
assaulted  by  the  mob  and  beaten,  Mr.  Wang  says : 

"This  official  was  kindly  disposed  toward  Chris- 
tianity, because  when  he  was  a  child  he  had  been  at 
a  mission  school.  For  the  Church  members  he  hired  a 
long  cart,  so  that  at  Hun  Yuan  none  were  killed.  At 
a  later  period,  when  they  had  returned,  they  were 
chased  about  the  city  and  abused,  being  daubed  with 
filth  because  not  one  of  them  would  recant. 


436      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

"Late  In  June  things  became  so  bad  that  the  magis- 
trate wanted  me  also  to  get  away.  He  told  me  to  put 
on  the  dress  of  a  yamen  courier,  gave  me  one  of  the 
yamen  horses,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  prefect  at  So 
P'ing  Fu.  As  bearer  of  an  official  letter  I  would  be 
much  safer,  though  I  was  well  known  all  along  the 
road. 

"In  So  P'ing  Fu  I  went  first  to  the  yamen  to  deliver 
the  dispatches,  and  then  to  see  the  missionaries.  Four 
of  us  went  to  see  the  magistrate,  and  he  promised  to 
furnish  an  escort  to  the  boundaries  of  his  own  district. 
We  returned  to  the  chapel  much  pleased  that  there  ap- 
peared to  be  a  way  of  escape^  and  were  busy  getting 
ready,  when  a  mob  gathered.  The  door  was  forced, 
and  we  fled  to  the  yamen.  The  chapel  was  soon  after 
burned. 

"It  was  ingeniously  proposed  to  represent  to  the  peo- 
ple that  I  had  come  to  the  city  with  imperial  orders 
from  Peking  requiring  all  foreigners  to  be  sent  there  in 
manacles.  In  this  way  the  lives  of  the  prisoners  could 
be  saved  from  the  mob.  As  I  had  the  yamen  horse  to 
take  back,  and  my  own  family  to  look  after,  it  was 
thought  best  that  I  should  return  to  Ying  Chou. 

"After  I  had  been  asleep  some  time,  being  very 
much  exhaufeted,  I  was  loudly  called  by  name,  and  every 
one  saw  that  mischief  was  meant.  I  could  not  escape ; 
so  I  went  out  and  found  a  great  crowd  of  Boxers  and 
Manchus,  who  began  to  beat  me  terribly,  and  dragged 
me  off  toward  the  burning  chapel,  intending  to  throw 
me  into  the  fire.  Soon  I  lost  consciousness.  I  learned 
afterwards  that  the  Boxers  felt  of  me  to  see  if  I 
was  really  dead,  and,  seeing  no  signs  of  life,  they  did 
not  care  to  drag  me  the  rest  of  the  way  simply  for  the 
trouble  of  throwing  me  into  the  fire.  Moreover,  two 
men  who  were  standing  by   befriended    me,    begging 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      437 

them  to  let  nic  die  where  I  was.  These  friends  felt 
my  heart  and  pulse,  and,  seeing  that  I  had  no  mortal 
wound,  they  waited  for  me  to  revive.  The  mob,  mean- 
time, left  me  to  go  back  to  the  yamen  and  try  to  kill 
the  missionaries.  There  were  ten  or  more  Christians 
there  whom  they  beat  severely ;  some  of  them  probably 
were  killed,  but  they  did  not  get  at  the  missionaries. 

"My  benefactors  helped  me  up,  and  took  me  back 
to  the  yamen.  There  they  gave  me  my  horse,  clothes, 
bedding,  and  my  dispatch ;  and  while  one  of  them  led 
my  horse,  the  other  carried  me  on  his  back  outside  the 
city.  They  helped  me  on  the  horse ;  but  I  was  so  weak 
and  faint  that  one  of  them  had  to  support  me  while  the 
other  led  the  horse.  They  went  with  me  to  the  end  of 
the  first  day's  journey.  On  the  way  I  met  travelers  who 
told  me  that  thirteen  foreigners  had  been  killed  near  So 
P'ing  Fu  that  morning.  They  were  probably  manacled, 
and  could  make  no  resistance. 

"In  my  feeble  condition  I  was  three  days  in  getting 
to  Ying  Chou.  When  at  a  town  thirteen  miles  from 
there  I  was  told  that  it  was  useless  to  go  on,  as  the 
place  had  been  destroyed  June  29th.  I  heard  also  that 
my  mother  and  others  had  been  started  by  the  magis- 
trate in  a  cart  for  So  P'ing  Fu,  but  that  they  had  been 
overtaken  by  the  Boxers  half  a  day's  journey  distant, 
and  brought  back.  My  mother,  brother,  sister,  my  lit- 
tle child,  and  an  old  lady  named  \Vu  were  burned  alive. 
Not  only  this,  but  the  head  yamen  runner,  who  had 
escorted  them,  was  thrown  into  the  fire,  the  cart  was 
burned,  the  mule  killed  and  thrown  into  the  flames,  also 
the  dog  and  chickens  in  our  yard.  People  were  not  tied, 
but  were  just  thrown  into  the  fire  and  driven  back 
whenever  they  tried  to  get  out.  It  was  a  slow  and  bit- 
ter death,  which  I  do  not  like  to  think  of.  The  magis- 
trate did  his  best  to  save  the  life  of  his  own  yamen 


438      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

servants,  but  was  told  that  if  he  pressed  the  matter  he 
himself  would  be  thrown  into  the  fire. 

"Notwithstanding  these  dreadful  stories,  I  could 
not  give  up  the  idea  of  returning  to  see  for  myself  if 
this  was  true.  About  three  miles  from  the  city  a  band 
of  forty  or  more  Boxers  set  on  me,  ordered  me  to  get 
off  the  horse,  tied  me  tightly,  and  dragged  me  on  to 
the  city.  My  arrival  was  soon  reported  to  the  magis- 
trate, who  heard  that  the  Boxer  chief  was  trying  the 
case.  He  sent  a  polite  invitation  to  the  chief  to  come 
to  him,  which  he  did. 

"Then  the  magistrate  said  that  he  had  long  felt 
grave  doubts  as  to  whether  these  were  true  Boxers, 
and  whether  they  were,  as  they  pretended,  proof 
against  arrows  and  bullets.  He  now  proposed  to  test 
this.  "Let  your  men  go  through  their  spells  and  make 
themselves  invulnerable  if  they  can,  then  I  will  attack 
them  with  guns.  If  you  are  not  hurt,  you  may  kill  the 
courier  Wang  in  any  way  you  like ;  you  are  true  Box- 
ers, and  I  will  be  one,  too ;  otherwise  I  shall  know  that 
you  are  not  the  true  Boxers,  and  that  your  claim  is  a 
fraud.'  The  chief  assented,  but  wished  not  to  stand 
in  the  ranks  himself,  but  to  one  side,  so  that  he  could 
tell  when  the  spirits  had  really  arrived.  To  this  the 
magistrate  agreed. 

"By  this  time  it  was  nearly  midnight ;  but  the  story 
having  got  out,  the  whole  city  was  there  with  torches 
and  lanterns  to  see  the  spectacle.  There  was  a  temple  on 
the  city  wall,  and  in  front  of  that  the  Boxers  were 
drawn  up,  making  their  passes  in  the  air  and  otherwise 
practicing  for  the  trial.  The  four  yamen  men  that  the 
magistrate  had  appointed  to  guard  me  wanted  to  see 
the  sights,  and  loosed  me,  so  that  we  could  all  look  on 
together.  The  magistrate  had  given  careful  directions 
and  looked  himself  after  the  loading  of  the  guns  with 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      439 

bullets  as  well  as  powder.  Foreseeing  that  there  was 
to  be  trouble  he  had  engaged  two  hundred  experts  to  be 
his  guard,  and  it  was  these  men  whom  he  set  against 
the  Boxers.  They  waited  until  the  chief  had  cried, 
*The  spirits  have  come !'  when  the  magistrate,  who  had 
a  gun  himself,  gave  the  order,  'Open  fire.'  Four  or  five 
of  the  Boxers  were  killed  outright,  and  not  a  single 
man  among  them  was  without  a  wound.  They  all  scat- 
tered. 

"The  magistrate  now  summoned  me,  and  told  me 
how  he  had  been  unable  to  protect  his  own  yamen  head- 
man, and  said  that  it  was  not  safe  for  me  to  remain. 
He  gave  me  twenty  taels  of  silver  and  an  official  dis- 
patch which  I  was  to  take  to  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  mainly  as  a 
protection  to  me  in  traveling." 

This  dispatch  saved  Mr.  Wang's  life.  After  many 
thrilling  adventures  and  a  sojourn  of  two  months  in  the 
mountains  he  reached  the  coast.  He  closes  his  story 
with  the  words : 

**It  is  a  great  joy  to  me  to  see  so  many  Christians 
together  again,  and  to  tell  and  hear  of  God's  mercies." 

HIS  CROSS  ON   THEIR  FOREHEADS 

At  the  P'ing  Yang  station  of  the  China  Inland  mis- 
sion, where  twenty-seven  Christians  were  killed,  eight- 
een others  had  a  remarkable  experience.  The  Boxers, 
who  always  claimed  that  they  could  see  a  cross  on  the 
foreheads  of  Christians,  cut  a  cross  with  their  knives 
on  the  foreheads  of  these  eighteen  men,  and  kept  them 
in  the  scorching  sun  to  make  the  scars  permanent. 
Later  these  men  were  taken  to  the  local  official,  and 
there  they  were  beaten  from  four  hundred  to  five  hun- 
dred strokes  with  the  bamboo,  after  which  they  were 
imprisoned  for  several  weeks.  Truly  they  bore  branded 
on  their  bodies  the  marks  of  Jesus. 


440      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

In  Tai  Ku  lived  Mr.  Wu,  who  had  been  the  per- 
sonal teacher  of  Mr.  Williams,  of  the  American  Board 
mission.  He  was  interested  in  Christianity  and  had  at- 
tended services  regularly.  After  the  massacres  in  that 
city  began  he  was  reported  to  the  Boxers  as  a  Chris- 
tian, and  they  went  at  once  and  set  fire  to  the  house. 
Mr.  Wu  came  out,  and  friends  interceded  for  him,  stat- 
ing that  he  was  not  a  member  of  the  Church.  The  Box- 
ers then  allowed  them  to  extinguish  the  fire.  The  Boxer 
leaders  said :  "Though  Mr.  Wu  has  not  entered  the 
Church  of  the  foreigners,  he  has  had  much  intercourse 
with  them.  They  have  given  him  medicine  which  has 
bewitched  him,  and  has  imprinted  a  cross  on  his  fore- 
head. This  must  be  cut  out  with  a  knife.  Their  direc- 
tions were  followed,  and  Mr.  Wu's  life  was  spared. 

There  were  many  other  instances  where  those  who 
were  suspected  of  being  "erh  mao-tzu"  attempted  them- 
selves to  erase  the  cross  from  their  foreheads.  Where 
the  Boxers  attempted  the  erasure  of  the  imagined  mark 
they  sometimes  used  the  knife,  but  often  read  charms 
and  gave  medicine  to  cause  it  to  vanish. 

TWO  e:ngi.ish  baptist  martyrs 

When  Mr.  Dixon  and  the  other  missionaries  fled 
from  Hsin  Chou,  Mr.  Chou  took  refuge  with  his  wife 
and  child  in  the  village  where  his  wife's  mother  lived. 
Soon  the  Boxers  had  him  in  their  hands  and  he  was 
beaten  until  he  was  insensible.  The  Boxers  searched 
his  clothes,  and  finding  a  New  Testament,  they  decided 
to  burn  him.  They  forced  every  family  in  the  village 
to  contribute  a  bundle  of  millet  stalks,  and  on  this  altar 
Mr.  Chou's  body  was  burned  in  sacrifice. 

Mrs.  Liu  escaped  when  her  home  was  destroyed, 
and  found  a  hiding-place  in  her  mother's  house.  Im- 
mediately the  Boxers  sought  her  out;  again  she  es- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      441 

capcd,  and  hid  in  a  whcatficld.  There  she  was  seized, 
bound,  and  taken  to  the  city,  her  captors  raining  blows 
on  her  body  as  they  went  along.  Still  her  faith  failed 
not.  Arriving  at  the  city,  her  tormentors  threw  her 
into  the  smoldering  ruins  of  the  chapel  and  went  away. 
Finding  herself  free,  she  managed  to  creep  out  of  the 
ruins  and  through  the  city  gate  ;  but  before  she  reached 
home,  the  Boxers  laid  hands  on  her  again.  Casting 
her  again  into  the  fire,  they  watched  until  life  had  de- 
parted. Steadfast  through  this  prolonged  suffering, 
Mrs.  Liu  gave  her  testimony  that  His  grace  is  suf- 
ficient. 

u  Yu  OR  "hei  kou'' 

Li  Yii  was  Dr.  Atwood's  medical  assistant  at  Fen 
Chou  Fu,  but  his  home  was  at  the  village  of  Li  ]Man, 
eight  miles  east  of  Tai  Ku.  His  first  thrilling  experi- 
ence during  the  Boxer  troubles  was  at  Yu  Tz'u,  where 
he  was  helping  Mr.  Davis  start  a  new  outstation.  It 
was  a  turbulent  place,  and  the  anti-foreign  feeling  was 
very  strong.  In  June  a  plot  was  laid  to  kill  him. 
Roughs  went  to  the  place  where  he  lived,  intending  to 
kill  him,  and  looted  his  possessions.  Fortunately  Li 
Yii  had  heard  of  their  plot,  and  he  fled  alone  from  the 
city.  That  night,  when  he  passed  through  the  city 
gates,  there  were  crowds  with  lanterns  and  torches 
screaming,  "Kill !  kill !"  but  he  walked  through  the  mob 
unrecognized,  and,  traveling  all  night,  reached  Tai  Ku 
in  safety.  There  he  staid  for  a  time  with  the  mission- 
aries ;  but  seeing  that  a  large  number  of  the  native 
Christians  had  resolved  to  stay  with  the  missionaries 
for  life  or  death,  and  hearing  that  the  missionaries  at 
Fen  Chou  Fu,  whom  he  had  known  so  long,  were  al- 
most alone,  he  cast  his  lot  w^ith  them  during  those  last 
trying  weeks  of  their  earthly  sojourn.     It   was  July 


442      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

when  he  joined  them.  He  went  on  many  a  perilous  er- 
rand,— to  Tai  Ku  for  money ;  to  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  to  com- 
municate with  the  missionaries  there;  to  the  yamens 
in  their  own  city,  to  see  the  officials.  There  is  a  writ- 
ten statement,  signed  by  Mr.  Atwater,  Mr.  Price,  and 
Mr.  Lundgren,  testifying  to  his  faithful  services,  as 
he  was  constantly  risking  his  life  in  their  behalf.  He 
had  transacted  much  business  for  Dr.  Atwood,  and  so 
was  well  known  in  the  city,  especially  in  the  yamens. 

At  noon  on  the  2d  of  August  a  servant  from  Tai 
Ku  brought  the  awful  tidings  that  the  six  missionaries 
there,  and  a  larger  company  of  native  Christians  who 
would  not  leave  them,  had  been  murdered  two  days 
before.  Danger  was  nearer  the  Fen  Chou  Fu  band 
than  ever,  but  Li  Yii  did  not  leave  them.  About  two 
days  later  the  district  magistrate  sent  for  Li  Yii  to  come 
to  his  yamen,  and  demanded  that  all  the  firearms  of  the 
foreigners  be  given  up  to  him.  Li  Yii  replied,  "I 
I  know  that  the  missionaries  will  use  their  weapons 
only  in  self-defense."  The  magistrate  was  very  angry, 
and  ordered  that  Li  Yii  be  beaten  three  hundred  blows, 
with  eighty  additional  blows  on  his  lips,  and  committed 
to  the  jail.  Mr.  Fay,  a  faithful  teacher  who  was  stay- 
ing with  the  missionaries,  managed  to  gain  admission 
to  his  cell,  and  writes  thus  of  his  visit: 

*'It  was  a  tiny  room  without  a  window,  but  with  a 
small  square  opening  to  admit  light  and  air.  It  was 
full  of  filth  and  weltering  with  midsummer  heat.  As 
I  entered  I  saw  Teacher  Li  lying  on  a  little  k'ang.  See- 
ing me,  his  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  he  exclaimed,  'Lit- 
tle did  I  think  that  I  would  come  to  this !  Not  only  am 
I  powerless  to  help  the  missionaries,  but  my  own  fate 
is  uncertain.'  He  then  showed  me  his  poor,  bruised 
body,  with  black  welts,  one  piece  of  mangled  flesh  half 
putrid,  and  the  blood  flowing  from  another  cruel  cut. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      443 

His  whole  face  was  swollen,  and  my  heart  went  out  hi 
deep  pity  for  him;  but  what  could  I  do  for  him?" 

The  next  day  Mr.  Fay  went  back  with  ointment 
and  bandages  from  the  missionaries,  and  several  times 
after  this  he  took  to  liini  food  or  money. 

August  14th,  Li  Vii  heard  that  the  missionaries 
were  to  be  sent  out  of  Fen  Chou  Fu  the  next  day  with 
a  guard  of  soldiers,  under  pretext  of  escorting  them  to 
Tientsin.  When  Mr.  Fay  called  that  afternoon  he  en- 
treated him  most  earnestly  not  to  leave  the  city  with 
the  missionaries.  "They  will  be  killed  a  few  miles 
from  the  city,"  he  said,  ''and  you  can  not  save  them 
by  going  with  them."  He  also  told  Mr.  Fay  that  the 
magistrate  had  intended  to  send  him  that  very  day  to 
Tai  Ku,  his  native  district,  but  that  his  superior  officer, 
the  newly-appointed  prefect,  wished  to  examine  him 
before  he  left.  "If  he  calls  me  before  him  to-day,  I 
shall  witness  with  all  my  strength  to  the  goodness  of 
the  missionaries,  and  entreat  him  to  allow  them  to  re- 
main in  Fen  Chou  Fu." 

The  Fen  Chou  Fu  magistrate  had  been  very  friendly 
to  Li  Yu  previous  to  his  beating,  and  he  could  not  un- 
derstand his  cruel  treatment  and  continuel  imprison- 
ment until  an  under  official  visited  him  m  his  cell,  and 
told  him  that  the  magistrate  had  arrested  him  to  save 
him  from  death.  He  knew  of  his  loyalty  to  the  mission- 
aries ;  he  knew  that  the  missionaries  were  to  be  treach- 
erously murdered  on  the  way  to  Tientsin.  This  was 
the  device  of  the  magistrate  for  separating  him  from 
the  doomed  missionaries,  for  protecting  him  from  the 
rage  of  the  Boxers,  and  from  the  death  penalty  which 
would  undoubtedly  have  been  visited  on  him  by  the 
newly-appointod  prefect,  who  intended  to  carry  out  the 
governor's  orders  to  exterminate  both  foreigners  and 
native  Christians  who  would  not  recant. 


444      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Soon  Li  Yii  in  his  prison  cell  heard  the  tidings 
which  he  dreaded, — that  the  missionaries  had  been  mas- 
sacred seven  miles  from  the  city.  Then  he  was  sum- 
moned to  the  audience-hall  of  the  prefect.  The  prefect 
asked  what  the  foreign  missionaries  taught  in  regard 
to  reverence  to  ancestors,  and  he  replied  that  the  teach- 
ings of  Christianity  were  that  we  should  not  only  rever- 
ence our  ancestors,  but  all  men.  "You  lie !  Christians 
have  no  ancestors,"  yelled  the  angry  prefect.  *'I  am 
speaking  the  truth,  your  honor,"  replied  Li  Yii,  where- 
upon the  prefect  arose  from  his  seat  in  a  rage,  saying, 
''He  is  talking  idiotic  stuff ;  beat  him."  The  underlings 
seized  him,  and  laid  on  the  bamboo  with  such  force 
that  blood  spurted  from  the  wounds  which  had  but  just 
dried  over,  and  Li  Yii  was  gagged  to  prevent  his 
screaming  with  agony.  After  the  beating  the  prefect 
asked  him  for  the  list  of  the  Fen  Chou  Church  mem- 
bers ;  but  on  his  replying  that  the  register  was  in  the 
hands  of  others,  he  was  sent  back  to  his  old  cell.  The 
friendly  magistrate  sent  him  to  Tai  Ku  as  soon  as  the 
bitterness  of  the  persecutions  there  ceased,  and  in  the 
safe  but  cruel  shelter  of  the  common  jail  he  was  con- 
fined for  a  month  or  two  longer.  There  tidings 
reached  him  of  his  mother,  wife,  and  two  children,  of 
their  wanderings  in  the  mountains  and  their  bitter  suf- 
ferings ;  how  they  found  shelter  in  wolf-caves,  and 
were  living  on  the  green  dates  brought  to  them  secretly 
by  kindhearted  children.  When  he  was  set  at  liberty 
after  the  taking  of  the  Shansi  passes  by  the  Germans 
he  went  in  search  of  his  family  and  found  them  nearly 
famished,  covered  with  mud,  and  with  only  a  few  rags 
for  clothing.  The  little  girl  had  fever  as  a  result  of  the 
exposure  and  hardships,  and  is  still  a  sufferer  from 
enlarged  spleen.  His  wife's  mother,  who  had  very 
small  feet,   could  not  escape,   and  although   she  was 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      445 

not    a    professing    Christian,    she    was    killed    by    the 

Boxers. 

It  was  through  Li  Yu's  hands  that  official  relief  was 
distributed  to  the  starving  Christians  of  Tai  Ku  and 
I<cn  Chou  Fu  afUT  a  foreign  army  had  brought  the 
mandarins  to  a  slow  but  sure  repentance.  It  was 
through  him  that  famine  funds  from  Christian  America 
brought  relief  to  friend  and  foe  alike  during  the  long 
mont'iis  of  scarcity  after  Dr.  Atwood  visited  Shansi 
in  1901. 

KIU.ICD  BY   MISTAKE 

Mr.  K'ang  was  a  man  in  middle  life,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  the  Church  at  Tai  Ku  for  about  three 
years.  Christianity  meant  much  to  the  simple-hearted 
farmer,  and  although  reading  was  not  easy  for  him, 
his  New  Testament  was  his  constant  companion.  His 
wife  still  clung  to  her  idols,  but  his  oldest  daughter 
entered  the  school  at  Li  Man,  and  a  boy  of  fourteen 
studied  in  the  school  at  Tai  Ku. 

Mr.   K'ang  was  a  man  who  had  never  made  an 
enemy.     When  the  Boxer  band  was  organized  in  his 
village,  five  miles  from  Tai  Ku,  its  leader  was  a  young 
man  who  had  been  his  warm  friend.     One  day  early 
in  July  this  Boxer,  with  a  few  followers,  knocked  at 
Mr.  K'ang's  gate.    When  Mr.  K'ang  met  him  he  said: 
"For  many  years  we  have  been  brothers.     I  do  not 
want  to  injure  you,  but  I  am  now  subject  to  the  gods. 
If  you  will  renounce  your  religion  and  worship  the 
god's,  all  will  be  well.     Will  you  worship  them  now?" 
"I  shall  not  worship  them,"  replied  Mr.  K'ang. 
The  young  man  who  had  been  talking  with  him  so 
calmly  exclaimed  in  excitement.     "Then  I  must  invite 
the  gods."     Turning  his  face  toward  the   southeast, 
he  lighted  a  stick  of  incense,  made  several  prostrations, 


446      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

wallowed  in  the  dust,  then  rising  with  a  maniac's  fury 
and  strength,  he  seized  Mr.  K'ang  and  hurled  him  into 
the  air.  He  landed  several  yards  away,  and  the  "god- 
possessed"  Boxer  started  for  him  again.  The  shoes 
had  fallen  from  his  feet,  but  springing  up  he  climbed 
a  tree,  leaped  the  wall,  and  started  for  Tai  Ku,  pur- 
sued by  Boxers.  He  won  in  this  race  for  life,  and  spent 
some  time  with  the  missionaries. 

The  day  of  slaughter  for  Mr.  K'ang's  village  came 
in  August,  after  the  Tai  Ku  massacre.  He  was  work- 
ing in  the  garden  of  a  neighbor  when  a  friend  hurried 
up,  calling  out,  "Run  for  your  life !  The  Boxers  have 
surrounded  your  home."  He  escaped  to  the  mountains. 
Meantime  the  Boxers  had  burst'  into  his  home,  and 
killed  his  wife  and  oldest  daughter.  Two  of  his  chil- 
dren escaped  to  the  house  of  a  neighbor  in  the  same 
yard.  In. the  confusion  of  the  attack  a  strange  mis- 
take was  made.  Before  the  Boxers  started  out  for  this 
slaughter  they  had  been  told  that  there  was  a  non- 
Christian  family  living  in  the  yard.  As  they  entered, 
a  little  child  belonging  to  this  family  ran  screaming 
across  the  yard,  and  was  instantly  impaled  on  a  Box- 
er's spear.  The  parents,  wild  with  grief  and  anger, 
screamed  out :  "We  are  not  Christians !  Why  are 
you  killing  our  children?"  The  Boxers  stood  still  in 
dismay,  exclaiming,  "We  killed  him  by  mistake !" 

A  notorious  village  bully,  whom  all  feared,  swag- 
gered into  the  yard.  "Killed  him  by  mistake !  And 
yet  you  say  that  you  are  possessed  by  the  gods.  Here 
you  are  killing  even  those  who  are  not  Christians.  Do 
you  intend  to  slaughter  us  all  ?  Is  this  a  case  of  mur- 
der?    Shall  we  demand  the  death  penalty?" 

The  days  of  indiscriminate  slaughter  were  past,  for 
proclamations  were  out  restraining  the  Boxers  from  in- 
volving  "the   innocent."      It   was   proposed   that   the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      447 

house,  garden,  and  fruit-orchard  of  Mr.  K'ang  be 
given  to  his  neighbors  to  atone  for  the  loss  of  their 
child.  They  refused  to  be  satisfied.  Then  some  one 
said:  "Are  not  two  of  the  K'ang  children  here?  Take 
them  in  place  of  your  child."  So  the  Boxer  leader  ar- 
ranged with  the  parents  that  they  should  adopt  these 
children,  taking  also  all  of  the  property.  In  this 
strange  way  the  lives  of  the  two  children  were  pre- 
served and  the  house  and  orchard  were  also  saved 
from  destruction.  After  many  months  a  tardy  justice 
gave  back  to  Mr.  K'ang  his  surviving  children  and  his 
property. 

THE  STORY  OF  TAI   KU 

Of  only  one  mission  station  in  Shansi  can  any- 
thing like  a  complete  picture  be  given.  Six  mission- 
aries of  the  American  Board  mission  in  Tai  Ku  laid 
down  their  lives,  and  about  eighty  Protestant  Chris- 
tians, while  only  forty  are  left. 

k'ung  hsiang  iisi,  the  college  student 

(Taken  by  permission  from  "Two  Heroes  of  Cathay.") 
[Condensed.] 

Back  into  the  centuries  before  Christ,  K'ung  Hsiang 
Hsi  traces  his  ancestry ;  for  he  is  a  direct  descendant 
of  the  great  K'ung  Fu-tzu  (Latinized  to  Confucius). 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  a  little  child,  and  with 
his  father  and  his  baby  sister  he  went  to  live  with  a 
wealthy  uncle,  who  is  now  an  official  of  the  fifth  rank. 
The  boy's  finely-chiseled  face,  his  refinement  of  speech 
and  manner  bear  witness  that  his  was  the  heritage 
of  more  than  two  thousand  years  of  education  and 
wealth  and  rank,  the  best  that  the  old  China  could 
give. 

But  to  this  boy  had  come  a  new  and  better  her- 


448      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Itage.  For  him  there  was  a  spot  in  that  city  far  dearer 
than  that  Christless  home  of  ease  and  comfort.  He 
had  gone  to  it  first  one  Sunday  when  only  eight  years 
old,  holding  his  father's  hand.  To  the  motherless  boy, 
with  his  sensitive,  loving  heart,  the  world  had  seemed 
very  big  and  cold,  and  a  new  warmth  and  love  came 
into  it  that  first  day  when  he  gathered  with  other  chil- 
dren about  the  kind-faced  missionary  lady.  The  next 
Sunday  he  perusaded  his  father  to  take  him  again; 
then  that  mission  compound  became  his  home,  and  for 
eight  years  he  studied  there.  Mrs.  Clapp  gave  him 
the  first  mother-love  which  his  lonely  heart  had  known 
since  his  mother  died.  Later  Miss  Bird  joined  the  mis- 
sion, and  became  the  guide  and  inspiration  of  his  life. 
It  was  the  Tai  Ku  missionaries  who  sent  Hsiang  Hsi 
to  the  North  China  College,  near  Peking,  five  hundred 
miles  from  his  home. 

On  May  21,  1900,  Hsiang  Hsi,  then  ninteen  years 
old,  completed  the  Junior  year  in  college,  and  soon 
started  for  Tai  Ku,  traveling  from  Peking  to  Pao  Ting 
Fu  by  the  railroad,  which  a  few  days  later  was  de- 
stroyed by  the  Boxers.  On  June  2d,  after  darkness  had 
fallen,  he  reached  the  mission  compound  in  the  city  of 
Tai  Ku.  He  found  there  only  Chinese  friends ;  for 
the  missionaries  were  spending  the  hot  summer  days 
in  the  new  buildings  in  the  south  suburb.  Very  lov- 
ing was  the  welcome  which  he  received  the  next  morn- 
ing from  Mr.  Williams^  Miss  Bird,  Mrs.  Clapp,  and 
later  in  the  day  from  Mr.  Clapp,  who  had  gone  to  an 
outstation  to  hold  services. 

Hsiang  Hsi  settled  down  to  help  the  missionaries 
as  usual  in  their  summer  work.  Miss  Bird  studied  Chi- 
nese with  him  every  morning,  and  not  a  shadow  of 
impending  calamity  darkened  those  first  happy  days 
of  reunion.     To  be  sure,   there  were  reports  of  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      449 

persecution  of  the  Catholics  in  other  places,  but  the 
Boxers  had  not  yet  been  allowed  to  set  up  their  altars 

in  Tai  Ku. 

So  two  weeks  passed.  Then  came  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Pitkin  with  the  startling  report  that  the  North 
China  College  had  been  destroyed.  It  was  the  last 
sure  word  which  crossed  the  western  mountains  for 
many  a  weary  week,  though  rumors  of  terrible  things 
reached  Hsiang  Hsi's  ears. 

Before  the  first  Sunday  in  July  it  was  known  that 
some  of  the  missions  in  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  thirty-seven 
miles  away  had  been  burned,  and  that  Miss  Coombs 
had  perished  in  the  flames.  Mr.  Davis  and  Miss  Part- 
ridge came  in  from  the  stations  of  Jen  Ts'un  and  Li 
Man  to  join  the  Tai  Ku  missionaries.  Definite  plans 
were  reported  for  attacking  the  mission  outside  the 
city,  and  as  there  was  no  strong  wall  about  it  the  mis- 
sionaries and  the  little  Christian  community  which  was 
sharing  their  dangers,  moved  early  that  Sunday  morn- 
ing to  the  city  compound.  There  they  worked  for 
hours  bricking  up  gateways,  fortifying  as  best  they 
could  the  place  where  for  a  month  they  were  to  remain 
in  a  state  of  semi-siege. 

Native  Christians— men,  women,  and  children— gath- 
ered with  the  missionaries  until  the  company  numbered 
about  forty.  Day  and  night  patrols  were  established. 
Again  and  again  the  crowds  outside  their  bolted  gate 
would  cry,  "Kill  the  foreigners!"  and  when  no  mob 
was  assembled,  a  solitary  passerby  would  often  call  out 
a  prolonged  "Sha-a-a"  as  he  passed  the  houses.  Then 
the  sound  of  a  rude  street  ditty  would  float  over  the 

wall : 

"  Soon  will  our  Boxer  braves 
Wipe  out  the  foreign  knaves, 
Then  will  the  heavens  drop  rain, 
And  peace  return  again. " 
89 


450      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

We  can  record  only  one  of  Hsiang's  Hsi's  special 
adventures  during  this  first  week  of  July. 

His  sister  had  studied  with  Miss  Partridge  and 
Ruth  in  the  school  at  Li  Man,  and  was  at  the  south 
suburb  with  them  that  Sunday  morning  when  they  took 
refuge  in  the  city  compound.  Her  unbound  feet  would 
proclaim  the  fact  that  she  was  a  ''follower  of  the  for- 
eigners," and  expose  her  to  insult,  if  not  to  actual  dan- 
ger, in  her  uncle's  home  in  Tai  Ku.  Neither  was  her 
father  willing  that  she  should  remain  with  the  mission- 
aries. So  Hsiang  Hsi  engaged  a  cart  and  took  her  to 
her  grandmother's  home  several  miles  from  the  city. 
On  the  way  out  they  had  met  no  one  who  recognized 
them,  but  Hsiang  Hsi  had  a  narrow  escape  on  his 
return.  About  five  miles  from  the  city  his  carter 
stopped  and  entered  a  shop  for  a  smoke.  Close  by, 
on  a  level  spot  of  ground,  Boxers  were  practicing. 
As  Hsiang  Hsi  sat  on  the  cart  watching  them,  a  man 
at  the  shop  door  called  out,  "Do  n't  you  Christians  say 
that  there  are  no  gods?"  *'No,"  Hsiang  Hsi  repUed 
quietly;  "but  we  say  that  there  is  only  one  God. 
Have  n't  you  heard  the  first  commandment  ?"  The 
man  continued  his  rude  questions,  with  the  evident  de- 
sign of  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  was  a 
"follower  of  the  foreign  devils"  in  their  midst.  Three 
Boxers  from  the  crowd  suddenly  rushed  down  the  road 
toward  his  cart.  Two  brandished  clubs,  the  other  car- 
ried a  huge  knife.  Barefooted,  with  disheveled  hair, 
wild  eyes,  and  lips  swollen  with  the  rage  of  their  mad 
orgies  and  the  sight  of  a  hated  Christian,  they  called, 
"Sha!  Sha!"  and  came  forward  with  great  leaps. 
Quick  as  a  flash  Hsiang  Hsi  jerked  his  pistol  from  his 
belt  and  aimed  toward  them.  They  stopped,  panting 
like  wild  beasts  baffled  in  pursuit  of  their  prey,  and 
swung  their  weapons  in  fierce  frenzy.     Several  men 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      451 

came  forward  and  drew  the  madmen  back,  doubtless 
more  concerned  for  their  safety  than  for  that  of  the 
young  man  with  white  face  and  firmly-grasped  pistol. 
Hsiang  Hsi  called  for  the  carter,  who  had  not  dared 
to  come  out  to  his  rescue,  he  lashed  the  mule  to  a  gal- 
lop, and  soon  the  murderous  cries  of  the  enraged  Box- 
ers died  away  in  the  distance. 

The  next  Sunday,  July  8th,  news  was  brought 
of  the  first  martyrdom  among  the  Tai  Ku  Christians. 
The  missionaries  had  been  killed  or  driven  out  from 
all  of  the  mission  stations  in  this  region  except  Fen 
Chou  I'u  and  Tai  Yuan  Fu,  and  the  reports  brought 
by  trusty  messengers  of  the  circumstances  of  those  im- 
prisoned in  the  latter  place  were  most  ominous.  Hsiang 
Hsi  still  staid  in  the  mission  compound,  and  Miss  Bird 
refers  to  him  in  her  journal  as  "uur  T'ungchou  student. 
who  has  stood  by  us  so  bravely  when  he  might  easily 
be  in  a  place  of  perfect  safety  among  his  heathen  rel- 
atives;" and  again  she  says,  *'He  is  a  great  comfort 
now,  and  he  is  capable  and  energetic,  as  well  as  true." 
The  greatest  of  Hsiang  Hsi's  trials  was  his  father's  im- 
portunities to  leave  the  doomed  missionaries.  Day 
after  day  he  came,  and  with  tears  entreated  his  son  not 
to  throw  away  his  life.  "Go  home  with  me;  death 
may  come  here  at  any  time.  Are  you  not  my  only  son  ? 
What  good  will  it  do  your  friends  for  you  to  die  with 
them  ?  If  you  live,  you  can  devote  your  life  to  preach- 
ing Christ  to  these  deluded  p'ebple.  Have  you  nO  love 
for  your*  poor  father  ?" 

The  uncle  with  whom  Hsiang  Hsi  and  his  father 
lived  wrote  letters  reminding  him  in  sterner  words  of 
his  duty  to  his  family.  "Are  you  not  of  the  noble  clan 
of  Confucius,  the  only  son  of  your  father,  his  hope  and 
pride?  Where  is  your  filial  love?"  This  uncle  believed 
in  th(i  Bdxer's,  and  was  convinced  that  certain  de^th 


452      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

was  the  fate  of  all  in  the  mission  compound.  But 
neither  entreaties  nor  arguments  availed  with  Hsiang 
Hsi,  to  whose  burdened  heart  death  seemed  almost  bet- 
ter than  life,  and  who  knew  that  once  in  his  uncle's 
house  he  would  be  beset  by  constant  temptations  to  re- 
cant. His  uncle  had  even  threatened  to  get  him  away 
from  the  fated  compound  by  having  him  arrested  foi 
unfilial  conduct.  Better  a  few  months  of  imprison- 
ment, a  beating  of  a  few  hundred  strokes  in  a  yamen, 
than  death  as  a  Christian.  Hsiang  Hsi  was  constantly 
on  his  guard  lest  his  relatives  take  him  away  by  force, 
and  hardly  dared  to  leave  the  compound,  suspecting 
that  men  had  been  stationed  near  with  orders  to  seize 
him  if  he  appeared  on  the  street. 

As  dangers  thickened  about  the  little  band  of  mis- 
sionaries, they  often  urged  their  Chinese  to  leave  them. 
''Brother/'  said  Mr.  Williams  to  Hsiang  Hsi,  ''you 
can  not  save  our  lives  by  staying  with  us.  Would  it 
not  be  better  to  hide  somewhere?  Then,  when  the 
trouble  is  over,  you,  with  your  education  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth,  could  take  up  the  work  which  we 
shall  lay  down."  Under  the  date  of  July  nth,  Mr. 
Clapp  wrote  in  his  journal :  "His  friends  are  using 
every  means  to  get  him  away  from  us.  As  he  is  im- 
minently in  danger  of  being  killed  if  he  stays  here, 
and  to  go  to  them  would  ensure  personal  safety  for  a 
time,  it  is  very  hard  for  him  to  decide  to  remain.  May 
God  help  him  to  be  true  to  his  Savior,  is  all  we  can  ask." 
Hsiang  Hsi  never  for  a  moment  wavered  in  his  deci- 
sion not  to  desert  his  friends. 

July  nth  was  the  saddest  of  all  sad  days  at  the 
mission,  for  it  brought  tidings  of  the  Tai  Yuan  Fu 
massacre.  The  next  day  our  Tai  Ku  band  heard  that 
the  governor  had  sent  strict  orders  to  the  local  mag- 
istrate to  destroy  them  July  20th,  and  they  wanted 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      453 

Hsiang  Hsi  to  go  to  ask  his  uncle  what  he  thought 
of  this  report,  and  also  to  learn  the  details  of  a  plan 
which  he  had  proposed  for  hiding  the  missionaries  away 
in  an  old  fort  in  the  mountains.  The  uncle  told  Hsiang 
Hsi  that  he  was  on  no  account  to  return  to  the 
doomed  compound.  **If  you  could  save  one  or  two 
of  the  friends  who  have  done  so  much  for  you  by  sac- 
rificing your  life,  I  would  let  you  go."  "But  I  must 
go  back  now,"  the  boy  replied.  "The  missionaries  sent 
me,  and  I  must  give  them  your  answer."  Then  his 
uncle  commanded  him  to  come  directly  home  after  he 
had  delivered  his  message.  If  he  failed  to  do  so,  he 
w^ould  have  him  arrested  for  unfilial  conduct. 

Soon  Hsiang  Hsi  was  back  with  his  friends.  He 
and  several  other  Christians  urged  the  missionaries  to 
try  at  once  to  make  their  escape  in  the  night.  It  was 
only  a  few  miles  to  the  lonely  mountains,  where  they 
might,  perhaps,  travel  unnoticed.  Going  south,  they 
would  soon  be  beyond  the  power  of  Shansi's  terrible 
governor,  and  might  make  their  way  through  more 
friendly  territory  to  the  sea.  These  faithful  Chinese 
would  stay  with  them  for  life  or  for  death.  On  the 
]3th  and  14th  this  plan  was  discussed,  and  at  one  time 
it  was  decided  to  go ;  then  other  counsels  prevailed. 
Hsiang  Hsi  still  pleaded  that  at  least  one  or  two  of 
the  missionaries  flee  in  disguise  with  him,  and  though 
they  refused  to  separate,  he  kept  close  at  hand  one  of 
his  own  garments,  hoping  that  at  the  last  moment  one 
would  wear  it  as  a  disguise  and  escape  with  him.  If 
he  could  not  save  even  one,  still  he  would  stay  and 
d'e  with  them. 

Miss  Bird  told  Hsiang  Hsi  that  his  presence  was  a 
strength  and  comfort  to  them  all,  but  she  said  repeat- 
edly, "Hsiang  Hsi,  I  do  n't  want  you  to  stay  and  die 
with  us ;  when  the  end  comes,  I  want  you  to  try  to 


454      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

escape  over  the  wall."  Hsiang  Hsi  has  in  his  posses- 
sion to-day  a  touching  memento  of  Miss  Bird's 
thoughtful  love.  It  is  a  belt  which  she  made  for  him, 
sewing  into  it  small  pieces  of  silver,  that  when  he 
took  his  flight  he  might  not  go  penniless. 

Hsiang  Hsi  testifies  to  the  courage  and  quiet  trust- 
fulness of  that  little  company.  Day  and  night  he  was 
with  them,  sometimes  on  patrol  duty,  sometimes  taking 
the  hours  when  he  might  have  slept  for  quiet  heart-to- 
heart  talks.  They  went  about  their  duties  as  usual, 
meeting  each  day  for  prayers,  trying  in  every  way  to 
help  and  strengthen  the  Chinese  who  were  sharing  their 
perils.  One  day,  when  Hsiang  Hsi  urged  Miss  Bird 
to  flee,  she  said :  "If  the  work  which  the  Lord  wants 
me  to  do  in  China  is  not  yet  finished,  the  Boxers  can 
not  harm  me.  I  will  just  trust  in  Jesus.  The  suffering 
will  not  be  long;  then  I  shall  be  with  him." 

The  night  of  July  12th,  Hsiang  Hsi  committed  to 
his  father's  hands,  for  concealment  according  to  his 
directions,  letters  written  by  Miss  Bird  and  Miss  Part- 
ridge to  their  loved  ones  in  America.  Hsiang  Hsi 
promised  them  that,  if  he  survived  them,  he  would 
himself  place  them  in  the  hands  of  some  foreigner. 
Not  since  May  had  messengers  succeeded  in  making 
their  way  to  the  coast,  and  Hsiang  Hsi  knew  that 
these  last  letters  were  more  precious  than  rubies.  On 
the  14th  of  July,  Miss  Bird  sat  in  her  room  writing 
another  farewell  letter  to  her  mother.  Hsiang  Hsi  sat 
there  too,  and,  hearing  his  sobs.  Miss  Bird  came  to 
his  side,  and  said,  gently :  "Hsiang  Hsi,  do  not  grieve 
so  for  me.  I  am  not  afraid  to  die.  And  whatever 
comes  to  me,  I  know  that  my  mother  will  not  regret  my 
coming  to  China.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  have  helped 
a  single  soul ;  but  if  I  have,  I  do  not  regret  coming." 

The  letter  which  had  just  been  written  was  given  into 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      455 

Hsian^  Hsi's  keeping,  and  he  said  that  he  would  go  at 
once  and  conceal  it  with  the  others  in  his  uncle's  home. 
He  must  p^o  there  that  night  anyway,  for  he  had  prom- 
ised Dr.  Sang  to  see  his  uncle  about  helping  him  and 
other  Christians  to  escape  from  Tai  Ku. 

"Are  you  not  afraid  that  your  family  will  prevent 
your  coming  back  to  us?"  asked  Miss  Bird. 

"My  things  are  all  here  yet ;  I  will  surely  return," 
he  said,  confidently. 

As  they  sat  talking,  Miss  Bird  was  called  to  supper. 
"Are  you  not  going  to  see  ]\Irs.  Clapp?"  she  asked. 
"It  is  just  supper-time;  I  will  see  her  when  I  come 
back."  So  they  parted,  and  Ilsiang  Hsi  will  not  see 
the  lace  of  one  of  that  beloved  company  of  missionaries 
again  until  they  meet  where  partings  and  heartaches 
are  no  more.  Hsiang  Hsi  succeeded,  as  he  had  pre- 
dicted, in  getting  away  from  his  uncle  s  home ;  but 
just  as  he  got  back  to  the  mission  he  met  a  young  man, 
Chen  Fu,  who  was  going  outside  the  city  to  jom  the 
Liu  and  Sang  families  and  Ruth,  who  were  to  start  that 
night  to  find  a  refuge  in  the  mountains.  Hsiang  Hsi 
went  with  his  friend  outside  the  city  to  see  him  and  the 
others  started  safely  on  their  journey.  He  expected 
to  be  back  in  the  mission  in  an  hour  or  two,  so  no 
farewells  were  said.  Outside  the  city  he  found  the 
band  of  refugees  had  not  succeeded  in  hiring  carts. 
He  staid  to  help  them  until  darkness  fell  and  the  city 
gates  w^ere  closed.  He  could  not  return  to  the  city 
that  night.  Ruth  gave  him  a  bundle  of  her  clothing 
for  his  sister,  and  the  Sangs  gave  him  some  valuable 
surgical  instruments  to  hide  away  for  them.  He  must 
take  them  to  his  house ;  but  he  must  not  show  himself 
there  lest  he  be  forcibly  detained.  The  city  gates 
opened  at  daylight.  His  family  were  late  risers.  Ho 
thought  that  he  could  steal  into  the  yard  before  any  of 


456      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

them  were  up,  leave  his  packages,  and  be  back  in  the 
mission  before  any  one  saw  him.  But  his  family  had 
been  on  the  watch  for  him  all  night,  and  he  was  hardly 
inside  the  yard  before  his  father  and  a  servant  were 
ready  to  prevent  his  departure.  He  was  to  be  im- 
prisoned in  his  own  home.  Vainly  he  pleaded  to  be 
allowed  to  go  back,  if  only  to  say  farewell.  What 
would  his  friends  think  of  this  desertion?  What  if 
death  should  come  to  them  before  he  could  explain  or 
say  one  last  parting  word?  His  wild  grief  only  con- 
firmed the  belief  of  his  relatives  that  he  had  been  be- 
witched. He  could  not  eat  or  sleep,  and  lay  most  of 
the  time  half  stunned  with  grief. 

Still  his  thoughtful  love  for  his  teacher  did  not 
cease.  He  knew  that  she  lacked  cool,  summer  clothing, 
so  he  took  a  white  linen  garment  of  his  sister's,  and 
persuaded  his  father  to  go  with  it  to  the  mission  com- 
pound. In  the  garment  he  wrapped  a  piteous  note. 
"I  am  a  prisoner.  Fly?  I  have  no  wings.  Die? 
Death  will  not  come  to  me."  Miss  Bird  could  only 
write  a  few  words  in  reply  as  Hsiang  Hsi's  father 
waited  impatiently ;  but  she  told  him  that  he  would 
find  the  thoughts  of  her  heart  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Philippians,  beginning  with  the  nineteenth  verse.  In 
those  beautiful  words  she  expressed  the  hope  that 
Christ  might  be  magnified  in  her  body,  whether  by  life 
or  by  death.  **For  to  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die 
is  gain."  ''Having  a  desire  to  depart  and  to  be  with 
Christ;  which  is  far  better."  So  her  last  word  to  her 
beloved  pupil  was,  ''For  unto  you  it  is  given  in  the 
behalf  of  Christ,  not  only  to  believe  in  him,  but  also  to 
suffer  for  his  sake." 

On  the  evening  of  July  30th,  Hsiang  Hsi's  uncle 
came  to  the  distracted  boy  with  the  good  news  that  it 
was  rumored  on  the  street  that  an  edict  had  been 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      457 

issued  commanding  that  foreigners  be  protected.  "To- 
morrow you  may  go  to  visit  your  friends."  A  great 
load  rolled  from  Hsiang  Hsi's  heart,  and  for  the  first 
time  he  slept  peacefully  through  the  night.  The  next 
morning  he  bathed  and  changed  his  clothing  for  the 
first  time  during  his  imprisonment,  ate  his  morning 
meal  about  eleven  o'clock,  and  then,  exhausted  and 
weak,  lay  down  for  a  nap  before  going  to  the  mission. 
Even  as  he  slept  the  tragedy  impending  for  so  many 
weeks  was  being  enacted.  He  was  roused  from  sleep 
by  his  cousin,  who  rushed  wildly  into  his  room  crying, 
*'The  Boxers  have  come !"  Not  far  behind  was  Hsiang 
Hsi's  uncle,  pale  with  fear  lest  he  had  already  left  for 
the  mission.  He  had  heard  on  the  street  that  the  for- 
eigners were  to  be  attacked  in  force  that  day.  "They 
are  burning  the  mission  compound  outside  the  city," 
he  gasped.  "O !"  said  Hsiang  Hsi  with  a  great  feeling 
of  relief,  "we  expected  that  they  would  burn  those 
deserted  houses  a  month  ago."  But  he  had  hardly 
ceased  speaking  when  some  one  came  in  saying,  "It  is 
the  houses  in  the  city  which  are  burning."  Hsiang 
Hsi  made  a  rush  for  the  door,  but  his  uncle  was  there 
before  him,  and  soon  he  was  securely  locked  in  a  room 
in  an  inner  court. 

But  they  could  not  shut  out  sight  and  sound  from 
the  almost  frenzied  boy.  From  his  latticed  window 
in  his  prison  chamber  he  could  see  the  smoke  from 
the  houses  half  a  mile  away,  and  hear  the  howling  of 
the  mob  and  the  report  of  rifles.  Gradually  his  passion 
of  grief  gave  way  to  calm.  "They  are  not  afraid;  I 
will  not  fear  for  them."  Night  came  while  the  savage 
mob  was  still  raging  over  the  burning  ruins,  where, 
half  buried  in  the  bricks  and  stones  which  had  been 
hurled  at  them,  lay  the  headless  bodies  of  six  mission- 
aries and  eight  faithful  Chinese  who  had  perished  with 


458      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

them.  Later  Hsiang  Hsi  heard  the  stories  of  that  mas- 
sacre, but  at  the  time  imagination  spared  him  none  of 
the  horrors.  All  through  the  night  his  cry  was,  "If  I 
could  only  have  died  with  them !"  All  the  next  day 
he  was  locked  in  his  room.  Then  the  story  of  the 
tragedy  left  him  not  a  ray  of  hope,  and  there  was  no 
more  need  of  bolts  and  bars. 

There  was  a  reign  of  terror  in  Tai  Ku.  Eighty 
Protestants  and  many  Catholics  were  killed  in  the 
vicinity  during  those  fearful  weeks,  and  of  the  forty 
Christian  survivors  some  had  recanted,  though  in  many 
cases  the  friends  of  the  Christians,  without  their  knowl- 
edge or  consent,  had  gone  to  the  officials  and  obtained 
certificates  of  recantation  for  them.  Houses  in  which 
even  one  Christian  book  was  found  were  burned  to  the 
ground.  Hsiang  Hsi's  family  searched  for  all  of  his 
school-books  and  Christian  books  and  burned  them, 
fearing  that  the  house  would  be  searched  by  the  Boxers, 
and  all  the  inmates  killed  if  the  books  were  found.  But 
by  a  strange  providence  a  tiny  New  Testament  which 
had  been  given  him  by  Miss  Bird  fell  to  one  side  when 
the  books  were  placed  in  the  furnace,  and  with  a  thrill 
of  joy  he  pulled  it  out  from  the  ashes  which  had  con- 
cealed it.  Then  he  succeeded  in  hiding  it  in  a  disused 
building  in  a  back  court  where  furniture  was  stored. 
There  was  a  deep  cupboard  filled  with  old  papers  on 
which  dust  had  gathered.  Wrapping  the  tiny  book 
loosely  in  some  of  the  papers,  and  disturbing  the  dust 
as  little  as  possible,  he  placed  it  in  the  cupboard. 
Members  of  his  family  came  more  than  once  to  that 
very  cupboard  to  search,  but  seeing  the  dust  undis- 
turbed turned  away. 

Hsiang  Hsi's  uncle  constantly  urged  him  to  recant, 
writing  out  for  him  a  form  to  which,  by  threats  and 
entreaties,  he  tried  to  get  him  to  sign  his  name.    Still 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      459 

he  refused.  "Though  I  knew  that  the  Boxers  would 
kill  nic,  I  would  not  recant  or  burn  incense."  Impris- 
onment and  punishment  seemed  light  things  to  the  lad 
whose  heart  was  breaking  with  agony  for  his  friends. 
"Surely  the  boy  has  been  bewitched,"  groaned  his 
uncle,  and  every  day  he  burned  incense  and  read  Budd- 
hist prayers  for  him.  "Why  not  confess  your  sin  in 
forsaking  the  gods  of  your  fathers,  and  cease  to  bring 
calamity  upon  us?  The  Boxers  will  surely  find  that 
you  are  here."  At  last  the  father  himself  wrote  out  a 
statement  that  his  son  had  studied  with  the  foreigners 
many  years,  but  that  several  weeks  before  he  had  taken 
him  away  from  the  mission,  and  that  now  he  could  no 
longer  be  regarded  as  a  Christian.  This  his  uncle  gave 
to  the  official,  and  because  of  the  high  position  of  the 
K'ung  family,  it  was  accepted  as  a  recantation. 

But  some  who  had  recanted  had  afterward  been 
killed  by  the  Boxers.  Rumors  were  abroad  in  the  city 
that  Hsiang  Hsi  was  still  alive.  Several  servants  of 
the  K'ung  family  left,  fearing  that  search  would  be 
made  for  Hsiang  Hsi,  and  that  they  would  be  involved 
in  the  trouble.  "If  I  stay  here,"  said  the  lad,  "you  may 
all  sufifer  with  me.  I  will  run  away  somewhere ;  then 
if  the  Boxers  kill  me,  I  alone  will  suffer."  "No,"  said 
his  friends.  "Then  we  would  not  even  know  where 
your  bones  lay.  Stay  here,  and  if  you  must  die,  let  us 
have  the  comfort  of  laying  your  body  in  the  grave." 
Then,  as  danger  grew  more  imminent,  his  father  tried 
to  persuade  him  to  commit  suicide  by  jumping  into  a 
well.  "Spare  me  the  pain  of  seeing  you  murdered  and 
your  body  mangled  and  dismembered,"  he  pleaded. 

On  the  night  of  August  8th  the  rumors  which  had 
been  current  in  regard  to  the  K'ung  family  became 
more  alarming.  Everywhere  it  was  said  that  two  for- 
eigners were  hidden  there,  and  that  search  was  to  be 


46o      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

made  at  once  by  the  Boxers.  Hsiang  Hsi's  uncle 
knew  that  this  was  no  idle  threat,  and  that  this  search 
would  surely  lead  to  the  discovery  and  murder  of  his 
Christian  nephew,  and  probably  of  himself  and  family. 
The  next  morning  his  uncle  came  into  the  room  in 
which  he  was  hidden,  and  bade  him  prepare  clothing 
and  a  little  bedding  for  a  journey.  A  closed  cart  was 
waiting.  In  the  back  was  a  place  usually  packed  with 
luggage  in  which  Hsiang  Hsi  was  stowed,  and  his 
bedding  was  piled  in  front  of  him  to  the  top  of  the 
cart  so  that  it  looked  as  if  his  uncle  and  cousin,  who 
rode  outside,  were  the  only  occupants  of  the  cart.  That 
very  noon  a  literary  man,  a  friend  of  Hsiang  Hsi's 
father,  appeared  at  the  door  of  the  K'ung  family 
drenched  with  perspiration,  crying,  "The  Boxers  have 
just  killed  a  woman,  and  are  on  their  way  here." 

Meanwhile  Hsiang  Hsi  and  his  uncle  had  reached 
a  shop  belonging  to  the  family  in  a  village  about  three 
miles  from  Tai  Ku.  Arrangements  had  already  been 
made  with  the  man  in  charge  of  the  shop  to  find  a 
hiding-place  for  Hsiang  Hsi  somewhere  in  the  country. 
If  any  house  could  be  found  to  harbor  him,  half  the 
value  of  the  house  would  be  paid  for  sheltering  him  a 
month  or  less;  and  if  he  lived  there  over  a  month, 
the  entire  value  of  the  house  would  be  given.  At  this 
shop,  Hsiang  Hsi's  uncle  left  him,  anxious  to  return  to 
his  threatened  home  in  the  city,  and  promising  to  send 
word  when  it  seemed  safe  for  him  to  return  to  Tai  Ku. 

The  shopkeeper  made  arrangements  with  a  relative 
named  Wang,  who  was  visiting  him  that  day  with  his 
family,  to  accept  the  terms  offered  by  Hsiang  Hsi's 
uncle.  This  family  lived  five  miles  from  Tai  Ku. 
Until  dark  Hsiang  Hsi  remained  concealed  in  the  inner 
court;  then  he  was  taken  to  the  home  of  the  Wangs. 
It  consisted  of  three  rooms.     The  middle  one  was  a 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      461 

square  hallway,  with  doors  opening  on  either  side,  one 
leading  to  the  large  family  room,  the  other  to  a  very 
small  room  in  a  somewhat  ruinous  condition,  dirty, 
dark,  musty,  used  as  a  storeroom.  In  this  room  Hsiang 
Hsi  was  concealed,  with  orders  never  to  let  himself  be 
seen  or  heard.  Here  he  was  shut  in  to  his  gloomy 
thoughts,  without  a  book,  a  paper,  even  a  Bible,  for 
solace,  while  the  summer  damp  steamed  in  his  face, 
and  swarming  vermin  made  his  retreat  loathsome. 

The  end  of  August  came,  and  Hsiang  Hsi  was  re- 
joiced to  see  the  face  of  his  father,  and  to  know  that 
he,  too,  had  succeeded  in  hiding  from  his  ruthless  foes 
during  those  long  weeks  of  separation.  He  had  come 
to  tell  his  son  of  a  new  hiding-place  where  they  might 
live  together.  A  wealthy  man,  a  cousin  of  Hsiang 
Hsi's  mother,  had  closed  the  shop  connected  with  the 
extensive  premises  w^here  he  lived  in  the  village  of 
Wang  Ts'un,  and  was  living  in  peace  and  plenty  with 
few  to  interrupt  his  quiet.  "Bring  your  son  here  by 
all  means,"  he  said,  as  soon  as  he  heard  the  story  of 
the  past  months.  ''Why  did  n't  you  come  to  me  with 
your  trouble  long  ago?" 

Another  night  journey  with  his  father  brought 
Hsiang  Hsi  to  this  new  refuge.  There  they  staid  about 
three  weeks ;  then  his  uncle  came  with  a  cart  and  took 
him  back  to  his  home.  On  that  journey  Hsiang  Hsi 
rode  inside  the  cart,  and  his  uncle  rode  outside,  a  pistol 
ready  at  his  hand.  Still  he  lived  in  semi-concealment, 
and  Christian  friends  who  came  to  seek  for  him  were 
told  that  he  was  not  at  home.  By  October  the  danger 
seemed  over,  and  he  was  free  to  seek  out  any  Christian 
who  might  have  survived.  Then  it  was  that  a  new 
bitterness  stole  gradually  into  Hsiang  Hsi's  heart. 
During  all  those  past  months  of  danger  and  agony, 
faith  and  hope  had  never  deserted  him.     Had  he  not 


462      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

read  in  history  that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the 
seed  of  the  Church  ?  Was  not  the  Bible  full  of  promises 
for  just  such  times  of  persecution?  But  when  he  saw 
the  physical  suffering  and  poverty  of  the  ''remnant," 
and  heard  the  scoffs  of  their  enemies,  the  light  in  his 
heart  began  to  fade,  and  the  question  ''Why?"  hand- 
maid of  insanity  and  skepticism,  began  to  ring  in  his 
ears.  The  leaders  in  the  Church,  those  who  were  best 
grounded  in  the  faith,  the  more  spiritually-minded, 
were  nearly  all  among  the  martyrs.  Of  the  sur- 
vivors, many  had  recanted,  and  though  this  recanta- 
tion had,  with  many,  been  only  nominal  or  indirect,  it 
accounted  in  a  measure  for  the  spirit  of  discourage- 
ment which  prevailed.  It  was  year  of  drought  and 
famine.  The  homes  of  the  Christians  had  been  burned, 
their  property  all  destroyed.  Though  their  lives  were 
no  longer  in  great  danger,  persecution  and  insult 
awaited  them  everywhere.  They  heard  that  there  were 
great  foreign  armies  in  the  province  to  the  east^  but 
not  one  of  the  Shansi  Boxers  had  suffered  for  his 
crimes;  and  though  missionaries  were  waiting  not  far 
from  the  borders  of  Shansi,  longing  to  hasten  to  the 
relief  of  the  Christians,  no  foreigner  could  yet  venture 
into  that  bloodstained  province  without  an  army  to 
protect  him. 

In  January  the  bodies  of  the  fourteen  who  had 
suffered  martyrdom  in  Tai  Ku  that  last  day  of  July, 
and  which  thrfee  days  later  had  been  hastily  buried  in 
a  garbage  pit  outside  the  city>  w^re  disinterred  by 
official  command^  and  those  who  knew  and  loved  them 
best  were  asked  to  identify  the  precious  remains.  For 
hours  Hsiang  Hsi  stood  by  that  pit  trying,  by  the 
clothing  and  by  the  other  tokens  which  he  knew,  to 
recognize  the  dear  forms,  headless  though  they  were. 
Was  it  easy^  standing  there,  to  remember  thkt  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      463 

corruptible  had  put  on  incorruption,  that  the  mortal 
had  put  on  inimortahty  ?  After  the  remains  had  been 
placed  in  coffins,  Hsiang  Hsi  still  stood  by  the  pit  in 
which  were  burning  the  mats  which  had  been  wrapped 
about  the  poor  bodies,  bits  of  wood  and  cloth  and 
refuse.  The  temptation  came  to  end  his  agony  by 
casting  himself  down  into  the  flames.  "What  right 
have  I  to  live  when  they  are  dead  !"  he  cried  in  anguish. 

In  March  he  turned  his  face  toward  Peking,  where 
the  college  teachers  and  classmates  who,  he  feared,  had 
all  been  killed,  were  living.  Perhaps  there  some  light 
would  come  to  his  darkness,  some  hope  to  his  despair. 
He  could  not  venture  to  take  those  precious  last  mes- 
sages written  by  the  missionaries  to  their  loved  ones, 
which  he  had  concealed  so  cunningly  that  no  one  had 
found  them.  The  passes  in  the  mountains  were  still 
guarded  by  Chinese  armies,  and  every  traveler  was 
searched. 

The  railroad  had  been  repaired  and  carried  him 
quickly  over  the  last  stage  of  his  journey.  At  the 
first  sight  of  familiar  faces  tears  flooded  his  eyes,  and, 
though  the  loving  greetings  of  his  teachers  comforted 
his  sore  heart,  they  also  reminded  him  of  the  lost  ones. 
For  weeks  the  very  mention  of  Shansi  would  bring 
tears  to  his  eyes.  He  could  not  join  his  collegemates 
in  their  studies.  The  one  longing  of  his  heart  was  to 
go  to  America  to  offer  consolation  to  the  friends  of 
those  who  had  died  for  Shansi.  How  this  longing  has 
been  realized,  how  it  has  been  expanded  into  the  pur- 
pose of  preparing  himself  in  Oberlin  College  to  take  up 
the  work  laid  down  by  her  martyred  alumni,  is  told 
in  "Two  Heroes  of  Cathay."  Mr.  K'ung  and  Mr.  Fey, 
whose  story  is  told  in  Chapter  V,  are  now  studying  in 
Oberlin,  Ohio. 

Before  coming  to  this  country,  Hsiang  Hsi  made 


464      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

the  long  journey  into  Shansi  to  take  out  from  their  hid- 
ing-place the  priceless  missives  which  had  been  in- 
trusted to  him  a  year  before. 

ch'eng  teng  yuan 

For  weeks  the  doomed  band  at  Tai  Ku  had  been 
shut  away  from  the  outside  world.  Was  it  only  Shansi, 
with  its  wicked  governor,  which  was  in  mad  turmoil, 
or  were  the  terrible  stories  about  Peking  true?  Was 
the  whole  of  China  bathed  in  blood?  Was  there 
no  one  to  rescue  those  who  waited  at  the  gates  of  death  ? 
The  Tai  Ku  missionaries  had  made  many  an  effort  to 
send  a  telegram  or  a  brief  message  to  Pao  Ting  Fu  or 
Tientsin,  but  all  in  vain.  It  was  near  the  end  of  July 
when  a  man,  who  for  weeks  had  shared  the  dangers 
of  that  mission  compound,  volunteered  to  carry  a  letter 
to  Pao  Ting  Fu  or  to  the  American  consul  in  Tientsin. 
It  was  a  farmer,  Ch'eng  Teng  Yuan,  who  offered  to 
go  on  this  dangerous  mission,  with  the  faint  hope  that 
thus  he  might  save  the  lives  of  the  missionaries  whom 
he  loved.  He  was  a  man,  not  yet  forty,  who  had  a  little 
farm  about  three  miles  from  Tai  Ku,  but  who,  after 
his  wife's  death,  spent  much  of  his  time  with  well-to-do 
uncles  about  seven  miles  away  in  the  mountains.  Nearly 
every  Sunday  saw  him  in  the  Tai  Ku  church;  for  he 
did  not  count  the  weariness  of  a  walk  of  fourteen  miles 
too  high  a  price  to  pay  for  the  privileges  of  that  day. 
When  the  Boxer  troubles  began,  his  first  thought  was  to 
flee ;  then,  seeing  many  who  were  taking  refuge  with  the 
missionaries,  he  decided  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  them. 

That  July  day  when  he  bade  the  missionaries  fare- 
well, Mr.  Williams  said  to  him,  ''Friend  Ch'eng,  I  hope 
that  God  will  protect  you  on  the  way,  but  I  fear  that 
when  you  return  you  will  not  see  me." 

There  was  little  money  left  in  that  mission  com- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      465 

pound,  so  Mr.  Clapp  ^avc  the  messenger  only  one  or 
two  dollars  for  traveling  expenses.  He  must  make 
the  long  journey  on  foot,  but  he  started  out  with  his 
tiny  missive  concealed  in  the  quilt  which  all  travelers 
carry.  He  walked  between  thirty  and  forty  miles  a  day, 
eager  to  bring  speedy  relief  to  the  imperiled  company 
ere  it  was  too  late.  Earlier  in  life  he  had  been  a  mer- 
chant in  a  distant  place,  so  he  was  accustomed  to  trav- 
eling, and  being  familiar  with  the  way,  he  met  no  dif- 
ficulty except  the  lack  of  money.  Soon  this  compelled 
him  to  sell  his  quilt  for  money  to  buy  food.  Where 
should  he  conceal  his  letter  now  ?  Buying  a  bamboo 
rod  he  cut  it  down  to  form  a  cane,  and  concealed  the  let- 
ter in  the  hollow  center.  He  was  searched  repeatedly 
by  soldiers  guarding  the  way.  At  last  he  was  stopped 
by  a  band  in  a  narrow  pass. 

"Where  are  you  going  ?"  they  asked. 

*'To  find  friends  in  Chihli ;  I  am  anxious  about  them 
because   of  the   disorder  there." 

The  soldiers  looked  at  him  suspiciously.  "It  is  in- 
deed in  great  disorder.    We  can  not  let  you  go  there." 

Many  soldiers  stood  about  him  as  he  pleaded  to  be 
allowed  to  go.  "No,"  they  said ;  "the  Boxers  are  rob- 
bing right  and  left,  and  killing  all  strangers." 

Mr.  Ch'eng  made  a  dash  to  get  away,  and  a  soldier 
struck  his  back  with  a  sword,  cutting  through  the  cloth- 
ing and  inflicting  a  flesh  wound.  Still  he  ran  on,  and 
the  soldiers  did  not  pursue  him. 

Would  he  find  any  missionaries  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  to 
whom  he  might  deliver  his  message  ?  For  a  month  the 
eyes  which  might  have  read  it  had  been  closed  in  death. 
He  made  his  way  to  the  south  suburb,  and  gazed  sadly 
on  the  ruins.  He  heard  that  Tientsin  was  in  tumult. 
Was  it  any  use  to  go  on?  Might  he  not  better  turn 
back  and  tell  the  Tai  Ku  missionaries  that  no  help 

30 


466      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

could  come  from  Chihli ;  that  if  they  fled,  it  must  not 
be  in  this  direction  ?  Moreover,  he  was  absolutely  pen- 
niless. So  he  decided  to  turn  back.  Almost  starving, 
he  would  sometimes  go  to  fields  near  the  highway  and 
eat  the  half-ripe  corn.  On  the  road  westward  were 
many  merchants  fleeing  from  Tientsin  to  their  homes 
in  the  interior.  There  were  so  many  that  animals  could 
not  be  found  to  carry  their  baggage,  and  often  Mr. 
Ch'eng  earned  a  meal  by  carrying  a  heavy  bundle  for 
some  weary  traveler. 

So  he  came  back  to  Tai  Ku;  but  Mr.  Williams's 
prophesy  proved  true.  He  did  not  see  those  whom 
he  had  sought  to  save.  The  massacre  of  the  mission- 
aries was  followed  by  frightful  carnage  among  the  na- 
tive Christians.  Mr.  Ch'eng  sought  refuge  with  his 
uncle  in  the  mountains.  This  man,  though  not  a  Chris- 
tian, had  heard  the  truth  at  the  opium  refuge  in  Tai 
Ku,  and  believed  none  of  the  tales  of  the  superstitious 
powers  of  the  Boxers.  So  he  concealed  his  nephew  in 
his  home.  After  a  few  days  a  wealthy  man  in  the  vil- 
lage heard  of  it  and  sent  word  to  the  Boxers.  To  Mr. 
Ch'eng's  uncle  he  said,  ''Why  do  you  keep  a  Christian 
here?  Is  it  to  invite  calamity  on  all  of  us?  Unless 
you  send  him  away,  we  '11  not  only  kill  your  nephew, 
but  all  of  your  family." 

As  threats  grew  louder  Mr.  Ch'eng's  uncle  said  to 
him :  "You  are  not  safe  here.  Close  by  in  the  moun- 
tains there  is  a  cave  with  a  very  small  entrance.  In- 
side it  is  cold  and  dark.  I  will  give  you  a  warm  gar- 
ment, a  lamp,  and  food,  and  you  can  hide  there  for  a 
time." 

Several  times  food  was  brought  to  Mr.  Ch'eng  in 
his  dark,  lonely  cave.  Then  for  two  or  three  days 
no  one  came.  He  stole  out,  only  to  hear  the  tidings 
which  he  feared.    All  of  his  uncle's  family  had  been 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      467 

killed  except  one  lame  boy,  who  had  managed  to  hide 
away  that  dark  morning  when  the  Boxers  came,  and 
to  escape  to  the  mountains.  The  threat  against  those 
who  sheltered  Christians  had  been  carried  out. 

Mr.  Ch'eng  wandered  away  to  places  where  he 
was  not  known,  then  almost  starving,  went  to  Tai  Yuan 
Fu  to  get  work.  The  wicked  governor  had  gone,  and 
Boxers  were  rampant  no  more. 

FAN   p'eI   CH'eING 

Another  of  that  Tai  Ku  company  was  a  man  who 
was  was  employed  to  work  in  the  mission  compound. 
Something  of  his  faithfulness  and  sturdiness  may  be 
known  from  the  following  incident.  At  one  time,  when 
he  was  the  regular  courier,  carrying  letters  from  the 
Shansi  mission  to  the  coast,  he  was  sent  with  a  letter 
to  which  a  speedy  answer  was  desired.  Wishing  to 
travel  by  day  and  night,  and  fearing  that  sleep  would 
make  too  great  inroads  on  his  time,  whenever  he  lay 
down  to  catch  a  little  sleep  he  would  tie  a  lighted  in- 
cense stick  to  one  finger ;  when  it  burned  close  enough 
to  waken  him,  he  would  be  up  again  and  off  on  his 
journey.  Mr.  Fan's  mother  and  other  relatives,  none 
of  whom  were  Christians,  lived  in  Ch'i  Hsien,  seventeen 
miles  away.  The  mother  besought  her  son  to  leave  his 
post  of  danger  with  the  missionaries  and  come  home. 
He  refused.  Then  she  employed  stratagem.  She  wrote 
a  letter  stating  that  she  had  found  a  wife  for  him,  and 
asked  him  to  come  to  attend  the  betrothal.  Mr.  Fan 
spoke  in  prayer-meeting  of  his  mother's  entreaties  and 
schemes  for  getting  him  home;  then  said:  "I  know 
that  my  mother  loves  me.  She  is  old,  and  I  am  her  only 
son.  She  is  anxious  about  me,  and  longs  to  get  me 
away  from  this  place  of  danger.  But  I  think  of  the 
perils  of  our  dear  missionaries  who  have  left  their 


468      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

homes  and  come  far  across  the  seas  because  they  love 
us  and  want  to  save  us,  and  I  have  determined  that 
I  will  not  leave  them.  My  mother  bids  me  go  home; 
I  shall  not  go." 

During  those  weeks  of  semi-siege  some  shrank  from 
the  danger  of  going  upon  the  street  to  get  the  necessi- 
ties of  life  for  the  little  community ;  but  Mr.  Fan  was 
always  ready  to  go.  On  that  afternoon  of  the  Tai 
Ku  tragedy  when  the  alarm  came,  he  went  to  the  high 
roof  overlooking  the  gateway,  and  threw  down  a  few 
bricks  on  the  Boxers  and  soldiers  who  were  crowding 
the  street.  Few  of  the  other  men  followed  him  there ;  the 
flames  kindled  in  the  gateway  would  soon  spread  to  the 
building  on  which  he  was  standing;  resistance  was  no 
longer  possible.  Running  down,  and  hastening  to  the 
rear  of  the  compound  which  had  been  fixed  as  a  ren- 
dezvous, he  saw  Mrs.  Clapp  with  her  crippled  arm,  and 
heard  her  pitiful  question,  "P'ei  Ch'eng,  what  can  we 
do?  Where  can  we  go ?"  In  the  narrow  courtyard,  as 
yet  undiscovered  by  their  foes,  the  little  band  of  mis- 
sionaries were  awaiting  death.  There  was  no  v/ay  of 
helping  them  now.  P'ei  Ch'eng  thought  of  his  old 
mother,  of  her  grief  if  she  should  hear  that  he  had  been 
killed,  and  vaulted  over  the  high  wall  into  a  vacant 
court.  The  Boxers  were  all  in  the  front  of  the  mission 
compound,  and  when  P'ei  Ch'eng  took  his  flight,  only 
neighbors  and  others  who  had  gathered  to  watch  the 
flames  saw  him.  "Run  quick/'  they  said,  and  bowing 
his  thanks,  he  ran  to  the  west  gate  of  the  city.  To  his 
dismay  it  was  closed.  He  climbed  up  the  city  wall,  hop- 
ing to  find  some  place  where  he  could  climb  down  on 
the  outside.  Soldiers  saw  him  hastening  up  and  called 
him  back. 

"Are  you  from  the  mission  on  the  South  Street?" 
they  asked. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      469 

•'I  am." 

"Then  you  must  not  go." 

Soon  they  had  him  in  their  hands,  and  led  him 
to  their  barracks  near  the  gate.  Imprisoned  in  a  little 
room,  he  sat  and  wondered  what  his  fate  would  be. 
Night  came,  and  the  Boxers  who  had  been  busy  in  that 
terrible  carnage  returned  to  their  headquarters  in  the 
east  suburb.  "We  must  take  our  prisoner  to  the  Boxer 
leaders,"  said  the  soldiers,  and  three  of  them  led  him 
out. 

When  they  were  within  a  mile  of  the  Boxer  temple 
one  of  the  soldiers  said,  "Halt."  All  stood  still.  "Do  n't 
go  on.  If  we  take  him  to  the  Boxers,  they  '11  surely 
kill  him.     What  a  pity !    Let 's  take  him  back." 

Soon  they  were  in  their  barracks  again,  P'ei  Ch'eng 
standing  before  them. 

"Where  is  your  home?"  they  asked. 

"In  Ch'i  Hsien." 

"What  reward  will  you  give  us  if  we  take  you 
home?" 

P'ei  Ch'eng  promised  them  about  three  dollars, 
and  they  arranged  to  send  him  home  early  the  next 
morning.  Boxers  passing  to  and  fro  kept  coming  into 
the  barracks.  How  could  they  conceal  their  prisoner? 
Telling  him  to  lie  down  on  the  k'ang  and  feign  sleep, 
they  covered  him  with  a  long  cloak.  Soon  a  rumor 
of  this  reached  the  Boxers,  and  they  came  in,  asking, 
"Have  you  a  Christian  here?" 

"No,"  said  the  soldiers. 

"Who  is  that  sleeping  on  the  k'ang?" 

"O,  that 's  a  man  who  came  to  bring  food  to  the 
Boxers  from  his  village  who  are  staying  in  Tai  Ku. 
The  city  gates  closed  before  he  got  out,  so  he  is  sleep- 
ing here." 

The  Boxers  left,  and  as  soon  as  the  city  gate  opened 


470      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

in  the  morning  the  soldiers  hired  a  covered  cart  and  put 
P'ei  Ch'eng  inside  it.  A  soldier  in  uniform,  fully  armed, 
sat  outside.  He  was  taking  a  criminal  who  belonged  in 
Ch'i  Hsien  to  the  officials  there  for  trial, — this  was 
the  story  he  told.  A  crowd  followed  the  cart  with  the 
supposed  prisoner  as  it  drove  through  the  streets  of 
Ch'i  Hsien,  and  stopped  before  the  shop  of  P'ei 
Ch'eng's  uncle.  There  the  one  who  had  been  the  cause 
of  so  much  anxiety  was  welcomed  with  great  joy.  "I 
have  just  been  beseeching  the  gods  for  you,"  exclaimed 
his  uncle  ''Your  mother  is  crying  every  day."  He 
took  him  to  a  private  room  and  heard  his  story ;  then 
sent  the  soldier  on  his  way,  rejoicing  in  the  reward  of 
silver.  Soon  P'ei  Ch'eng  was  with  his  mother,  a  mile 
outside  the  city  wall.  ''I  have  daily  burned  incense  for 
you,"  she  said. 

P'ei  Ch'eng  told  his  story  of  those  last  moments  in 
the  Tai  Ku  compound,  with  the  tears  streaming  down 
his  cheeks. 

TWO  FAMIUES^  THi;  SANGS  AND  I.IUS. 

Among  the  Tai  Ku  martyrs  was  one  whose  loving 
heart  and  skillful  hand  had  endeared  her  to  many.  She 
had  come  among  them  as  a  bride  three  or  four  years 
before.  Her  girlhood  home  was  far  away  in  Eastern 
Shantung,  a  Christian  home  of  comfort  and  refinement. 
She  had  completed  the  medical  course  in  a  school  of 
the  Presbyterian  mission.  Then  she  married  Mr.  Sang, 
whose  birthplace  was  also  in  Shantung,  and  who  had 
returned  there  for  a  visit,  after  spending  several  years 
in  the  China  Inland  mission  in  Shansi.  Returning  to 
Shansi,  Mr.  Sang  studied  medicine  with  his  wife  and 
with  Dr.  Hall,  of  the  American  Board  mission  at  Li 
Man.  He  helped  Dr.  Hall  with  the  men  patients,  and 
Dr.  Sang  commenced  her  valuable  medical  work  for 


I. 

V. 


J^ 

r 

•  ."ii,^^  , 

n 

L 

1 
1 

CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      471 

women.  When  Dr.  Hall  returned  to  America  in  the 
spring  of  1899,  the  dispensary  was  removed  to  Tai  Ku, 
and  husband  and  wife  carried  on  the  work  together 
under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Clapp. 

The  second  family  was  that  of  Liu  Ch'eng  Lung, 
a  graduate  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  T'ungchou, 
whose  wife,  a  sister  of  Fay  Ch'i  Ho,  was  a  woman  of 
rare  lovableness. 

Into  each  of  these  homes  a  little  child  had  come 
just  a  year  before  the  Boxer  outbreak,  and  with  Mr. 
Sang  lived  his  younger  brother,  a  bright  boy  study- 
ing in  the  Tai  Ku  school.  The  two  families  were  very 
friendly,  and  when  the  time  of  trial  came  they  lived 
together  in  the  mission  compound.  In  all  the  company 
of  women  no  one  was  more  brave  and  hopeful  than 
Dr.  Sang.  Her  wide  experience  of  life,  her  well- 
trained  mind,  her  deep  religious  nature,  carried  her 
through  the  fearful  days  with  a  quiet  calm.  Miss 
Bird  wrote  in  her  journal,  "Mrs.  Sang's  face  is  al- 
ways cheerful." 

July  1 2th  word  came  that  the  governor  of  the  prov- 
ince had  ordered  the  massacre,  on  July  20th,  of  the 
missionaries  and  all  Christians  who  would  not  recant. 
The  missionaries  talked  of  trying  to  escape  to  the 
mountains,  and  urged  the  Christians,  who  for  weeks 
had  been  sharing  their  perils,  to  flee  before  it  was  too 
late.  So  two  nights  later  the  Sangs,  the  Lius,  Chen 
Yii  (a  schoolboy),  and  Ruth  (the  teacher  of  the  girls' 
school),  started  on  their  flight.  They  found  a  refuge 
in  a  ruined  temple  in  the  mountains  about  ten  miles 
from  Tai  Ku.  It  was  necessary  for  one  of  the  men  to 
go  occasionally  to  a  village  to  buy  food.  After  a  few 
days  the  amount  of  food  purchased  aroused  suspicion, 
and  a  spy  followed  to  their  mountain  retreat,  return- 
ing to  report  them  to  the  Boxers.    There  was  another 


472      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

hurried  flight ;  but  as  they  were  on  their  way  they  were 
overtaken  by  a  messenger,  who  reported  that  the  situ- 
ation in  Tai  Ku  seemed  less  threatening.  The  poor 
fugitives  longed  for  rest  and  food  and  friends,  so 
they  turned  back,  traveling  in  the  darkness.  They  did 
not  dare  to  go  by  the  direct  road  through  villages,  lest 
barking  dogs  call  attention  to  them;  so  the  ten-mile 
journey  was  lengthened  by  detours  and  wandering 
through  grainfields.  As  the  women,  with  their  little 
children,  unused  to  walking,  were  weakened  by  fear 
and  lack  of  food,  the  sufferings  of  that  midnight  jour- 
ney must  have  been  intense. 

For  twelve  days  after  their  return  to  Tai  Ku  the 
Sang  and  Liu  families  lived,  not  with  the  missionaries 
in  the  city,  but  on  the  mission  premises  outside  the 
south  gate.  There  they  were  when  the  city  mission 
was  attacked  that  last  day  of  July.  As  soon  as  they 
saw  the  dark  cloud  of  smoke  and  heard  what  was  hap- 
pening, they  started  again  on  a  flight  for  life.  It  was 
after  three  in  the  afternoon  when  they  started.  Once 
they  stopped  to  rest  in  a  cemetery,  but  the  owner  soon 
drove  them  off.  By  night  they  were  about  five  miles 
from  Tai  Ku,  and,  finding  a  large  cemetery,  they  of- 
fered the  owner  money  if  he  would  pity  them,  and  let 
them  stay  there  until  morning.  He  consented;  but  a 
man  from  a  large  village  near  by  saw  them,  and  knew 
that  they  were  Christians  by  the  unbound  feet  of  the 
women  and  the  suspicious  circumstances  of  their  flight. 
Boxers  had  not  been  allowed  to  drill  in  this  village, 
but  the  matter  was  reported  to  the  head  of  the  vil- 
lage militia.  Very  early  the  next  morning  a  band  of 
militia  hunted  down  the  poor  refugees,  took  their 
watches,  money,  and  other  things  of  value,  then  es- 
corted them  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  village.    If  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      473 

Boxers  shed  their  blood  there,  who  knew  what  evil 
consequences  might  follow? 

After  these  quasi-protectors  had  turned  back,  the 
refugees  came  to  the  village  of  P'ang  Ts'un,  and  soon 
they  were  in  the  hands  of  the  local  Boxer  band.  Some 
of  the  leading  men  in  the  village  protested  against  their 
being  killed  there.  "Take  them  to  the  district  magis- 
trate for  trial,"  they  insisted.  "No,"  said  the  Boxers ; 
"we  must  take  them  to  our  Boxer  chief  inside  the  east 
gate  of  Tai  Ku."  It  resulted  in  the  seven  Christians 
being  taken  to  Tai  Ku  by  a  mixed  guard  of  Boxers  and 
villagers.  The  three  men  were  bound,  and  walked  with 
their  guards ;  the  two  women  and  children  were  placed 
in  a  large,  open  cart,  and  late  in  the  afternoon  they 
approached  the  walls  of  Tai  Ku.  It  was  the  intention 
of  the  villagers  in  the  escort  to  take  the  Christians  in  at 
the  west  gate  of  the  city,  the  direct  way  to  the  magis- 
trate's yamen.  But  before  they  reached  the  west  gate 
they  heard  a  false  report  that  it  was  closed,  and  went 
to  the  south  gate.  It  was  guarded  by  soldiers  and  the 
evil-visaged  brute  of  a  leader  refused  to  let  the  com- 
pany pass.  The  Boxers  in  the  company  must  have  re- 
joiced when  they  were  forced  to  go  toward  the  east 
gate,  the  Boxer  headquarters.  Once  there,  they  were 
surrounded  by  a  tumultuous  crowd.  Still  the  villagers 
pleaded  that  the  lives  of  the  Christians  might  be 
spared,  or  that  they  might  be  taken  to  the  magistrate 
for  trial.  The  Boxers  shouted :  "Make  them  worship. 
Let  them  recant.  If  they  do  this  and  get  security,  we  '11 
not  kill  them." 

There  are  conflicting  reports  of  the  events  of  the 
next  few  moments.  It  was  proposed  that  the  usual 
tests  be  applied.  One  Boxer  called  out,  "Three  of 
them  have  recanted ;  four  should  be  killed."    Whether 


474      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

or  not  any  of  the  company  renounced  their  faith  is  not 
known  certainly,  but  while  they  were  discussing  the  mat- 
ter of  finding  men  in  the  city  who  would  go  security  for 
them,  one  of  the  Boxers  suddenly  became  "possessed 
of  the  gods,"  and  leaping  up  in  a  frenzy  he  called  out, 
"You  say  you  renounce  your  religion,  but  in  your 
hearts  you  do  not  do  it,"  and  almost  before  the  words 
were  finished,  three  of  them  lay  dying  at  his  feet,  one 
of  them  a  little  babe,  which  he  slashed  remorselessly 
when  he  heard  its  cry.    The  others  were  soon  slain. 

Did  some  of  them,  when  surrounded  by  those  pas- 
sion-darkened faces,  when  they  looked  at  those  cruel 
swords  and  then  at  their  helpless  babes,  say,  "I  re- 
nounce my  faith?"  It  may  be  so.  In  the  brief  mo- 
ment of  probation  left  them,  did  they  see  the  sorrowful 
eyes  of  the  Master  turned  on  them,  and,  weeping  bitter 
tears  of  repentance,  did  they  meet  him  in  the  other 
world,  and  did  he  ask  them,  as  he  did  Peter,  "Lovest 
thou  me?" 

RUTH^  the:  girIv  martyr 

It  was  in  1880  that  Ruth  came  into  the  Christian 
home  in  T'ungchou  where  she  was  to  be  a  sweet  joy 
and  blessing.  It  was  a  humble  home,  with  a  frail 
mother,  and  a  regular  procession  of  little  brothers  fol- 
lowed Ruth  into  the  world,  so  almost  before  her  hands 
had  learned  childish  ways,  they  were  busy  with  min- 
istrations for  others. 

We  all  rejoiced  with  Ruth  when  her  mother  de- 
cided to  send  her  to  the  Bridgman  School  in  Peking. 
"Will  Ruth  know  how  to  study  with  one  baby  in 
her  arms,  and  another  beside  her  snatching  at  her 
book  ?"  we  asked.  She  soon  showed  that  she  did  know 
how  to  study,  and,  though  not  brilliant,  by  her  faith- 
fulness and  diligence  she  was  ranked  as  the  first  scholar 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      475 

in  her  class.  In  January,  1900,  came  a  proud  day  for 
Ruth's  friends,  when  with  sweet  dignity  she  dehvered 
her  class  valedictory.  With  her  affectionate  disposi- 
tion, farewells  were  not  easy  to  say,  and  only  the  dis- 
cipline of  long  years  of  self-control  enabled  her  to  quid 
the  waves  of  emotion  which  trembled  in  her  voice  and 
filled  her  eyes  with  tears.  Had  the  girl  graduate  been 
able  to  look  into  the  future,  well  might  the  significance 
of  the  farewells  have  overwhelmed  her.  Of  the  school- 
mates gathered  in  the  chapel  that  day  twenty  are  num- 
bered with  "the  noble  company  of  martyrs,"  and  the 
chapel,  which  was  decorated  in  honor  of  the  occasion, 
within  a  few  months  was  an  unsightly  mass  of  ruins. 

Ruth  had  not  many  weeks  of  rest  in  her  T'ungchou 
home  before  she  started  on  the  long  journey  to  the 
scene  of  her  martyrdom.  Far  away  in  Shansi  were 
girls  who  had  not  enjoyed  Ruth's  privileges.  There 
was  no  boarding-school  for  girls  in  the  American  Board 
mission  there,  and  could  not  be  until  some  well-edu- 
cated Chinese  woman  could  be  found  to  assist  the  mis- 
sionaries. When  we  heard  that  timid,  home-loving 
Ruth  had  consented  to  take  up  this  new  work  among 
strangers,  we  knew  that  the  call  had  come  to  her  from 
the  Master  whom  she  loved. 

In  the  early  spring  days  Miss  Partridge  came  to 
escort  Ruth  to  her  new  home  in  Li  Man,  a  village  seven 
miles  from  Tai  Ku.  Soon  over  twenty  girls  were  gath- 
ered in  the  boarding-school,  and  Miss  Partridge's  heart 
was  filled  with  joy  over  the  new  work  and  the  new 
worker ;  for  Ruth  won  her  scholars'  hearts  at  once,  and 
as  teacher,  friend,  and  planner,  proved  her  rare 
worth.  She  passed  two  happy  months ;  then  came 
troubled  days.  One  after  another  of  the  schoolgirls 
was  taken  to  her  home  by  frightened  parents,  and  soon 
Ruth  found  a  refuge  with  the  missionaries  in  Tai  Ku. 


476      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

There  she  heard  of  the  slaughter  of  scores  of  mis- 
sionaries and  native  Christians.  Again  and  again  the 
sound  of  angry  voices  was  heard  on  the  street;  there 
were  sleepless  nights,  and  days  of  hourly  waiting  for 
death.  But  Miss  Bird  wrote  in  her  journal,  "Ruth  is 
as  quiet  and  self-contained  as  any  one  could  be."  The 
story  of  Ruth's  flight  to  the  mountains,  of  five  days 
of  wanderings  and  weariness,  has  been  recorded  in 
the  preceding  narrative.  Back  in  the  compound  with 
the  missionaries  and  about  twenty  loyal  Chinese  who 
would  not  leave  them,  Ruth  awaited  the  fate  which 
seemed  inevitable. 

Of  the  loved  family  circle  in  T'ungchou  Ruth  knew 
nothing.  Could  her  eyes  have  pierced  the  distance 
she  might  have  seen  them  in  the  Peking  Legations,  a 
little  brother  and  sister,  drooping  in  the  pestilential  air, 
failing  day  by  day  from  lack  of  proper  food,  and  find- 
ing forlorn  graves  amid  ruined  walls.  During  those 
days  of  waiting  Ruth  was  often  seen  reading  "The 
Christian's  Secret  of  a  Happy  Life,"  and  the  follow- 
ing letter,  written  a  few  days  before  her  death  to  one 
of  her  scholars,  the  sister  of  Mr.  K'ung,  gives  us  a 
little  glimpse  into  her  heart : 

"Peace  to  my  beloved  sister,  Chi'n  Feng. 

"Since  I  parted  from  you  my  heart  has  never  for  a 
moment  let  go  of  you,  but  I  think  of  you  without  ceas- 
ing, hoping  that  the  Lord  is  with  you,  and  that  you 
will  not  lose  that  which  you  have  obtained  from  him. 

"I  have  now  gone  back  into  the  city,  and  am  living 
with  the  missionaries. 

"These  few  days  since  I  returned  from  my  flight 
have  been  indeed  sorrowful.  I  know  certainly  that, 
if  the  Lord  wills  that  I  still  live  on  this  earth,  there  is 
no  one  who  can  harm  me.    I  now  commit  myself  into 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      477 

the  Lord's  hands.  Beloved  sister,  I  hope  that  the  time 
will  come  when  I  may  sec  you ;  then  it  will  be  well. 
If  I  live  I  shall  constantly  write  to  you,  that  you  may 
know  my  circumstances,  but  I  can  not  write  much  now. 
May  God  be  with  you  till  wc  meet  again. 

"Your  loving  friend,  Ruth/' 

The  end  came  the  last  day  of  July.  Between  two 
and  three  in  the  afternoon  one  of  the  Christians  on 
guard  ran  in  with  the  word,  ''The  Boxers  have  come." 
Fuel  had  been  heaped  up  outside  the  compound  gate, 
and  as  the  flames  burst  in,  Ruth  fled  with  the  mission- 
aries to  a  refuge  which  had  been  prepared  in  the  most 
remote  corner  of  the  compound.  It  was  a  little  court 
by  itself,  containing  a  small  house.  There  were  no 
doors  and  windows,  only  an  opening  which  could  be 
closed  after  they  entered.  While  flames  were  devour- 
ing building  building  after  building  in  the  main  court, 
and  other  faithful  Christians  there  were  offering  up 
their  lives,  Ruth  and  the  missionaries  were  hidden  in 
the  dark  room.  A  soldier  climbed  upon  the  roof  of 
their  refuge,  and  it  caved  in  under  his  weight,  showing 
the  hiding-place.  With  a  shout  of  delight  he  sum- 
moned the  soldiers  and  Boxers  in  a  temple  close  by. 
Fear  of  concealed  mines  or  traps,  or  of  the  revolvers  in 
the  hands  of  the  missionaries,  still  restrained  them  from 
rushing  in.  They  thrust  quantities  of  burning  fuel 
into  the  room,  thus  forcing  their  victims  out  into  the 
little  courtyard.  Then,  still  standing  outside  the  wall, 
they  sent  brickbats  like  hail  into  the  yard,  until  it  was 
heaped  with  them.  Not  a  cry  came  from  the  devoted 
band.  They  were  alone,  with  no  passion-distorted  faces 
to  shut  out  the  blue  summer  sky.  Perhaps,  like 
Stephen,  they  saw  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  face 
of  Him  whom  they  had  followed  even  to  death  smiling 


478      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

upon  them.  Whether  they  heard  his  "Welcome  home" 
before  the  murderers  ventured  over  the  wall  sword  in 
hand  to  decapitate  them,  we  do  not  know. 

A  servant  who  had  escaped  over  the  wall  lingered 
in  the  city  until  the  next  morning,  when  he  saw  the 
heads  of  the  missionaries  being  carried  on  a  cart  to 
Tai  Yuan  Fu  to  present  to  the  modern  Herod,  the  gov- 
ernor. Among  them  was  a  head  with  a  long  braid 
of  glossy  black  hair,  tied  with  red.  We  can  only  guess 
that  it  was  Ruth's.  But  we  know  that  to-day  Ruth 
stands  with  the  white-robed  multitude  who  have  come 
"through  great  tribulation"  to  stand  by  the  throne. 

WU   SAN    YUAN 
'I  WANT  TO  SEE  THE  FACE  OF  JESUS." 

Among  those  who  are  buried  with  the  mission- 
aries in  the  beautiful  cemetery  at  Tai  Ku  lies  one  who 
looked  on  the  Boxer  massacre  as  a  chariot  of  fire  to 
carry  him  to  the  home  where  for  years  he  had  longed 
to  dwell.  He  thought  not  of  the  pain  of  the  transla- 
tion, but  of  the  glory  bursting  from  the  gates  of 
heaven,  of  the  rapture  of  seeing  his  Savior's  face. 
Mr.  Wu  was  an  old  man  when  he  became  a  Christian, 
and  ever  after  the  one  hope  of  his  heart  was  expressd 
in  the  words,  "I  want  to  see  the  face  of  Jesus."  He  was 
much  beloved,  not  Only  by  the  Christians,  but  by  all 
who  knew  him.  When  the  Boxer  trouble  came  he  left 
his  village  home  near  Tai  Ku,  and  went  to  live  in  the 
mission*  The  leading  men  in  his  village  wrote  out  a 
recantation  for  him,  and  took  it  to  the  yamen;  then 
sent  messengers  to  Mr.  Wu  to  tell  him  what  they  had 
done,  and  to  bring  him  back  to  his  home.  "We  will 
protect  you,"  they  said ;  "no  one  will  harm  you."  But 
the  old  man,  trusting  in  the  Savior  whom  he  loved, 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      479 

longing  lo  go  at  once  to  sec  his  face,  decided  that  he 
would  remain  to  the  end  with  the  missionaries. 

When  the  Boxers  broke  into  the  front  of  the  mis- 
sion compound,  a  servant  who  was  rushing  through 
the  back  yard  to  make  his  escape,  saw  the  aged  man 
standing,  trembling,  with  his  hands  resting  on  a  table. 
Putting  his  hands  on  his  shoulders  for  a  moment,  he 
said,  *'Mr.  Wu,  you  will  soon  go  to  heaven  to  see 
Jesus."  The  old  man's  face  lighted  up  with  joy,  and 
he  nodded  his  head.  It  was  only  a  few  moments  be- 
fore he  saw  that  face  which  he  had  loved,  "not  having 
seen." 

CH'eNG  CHUNG  JEN 

Mr.  Ch'eng  had  been  an  opium  slave,  and  it  was 
his  release  from  that  thralldom  at  the  opium  refuge 
which  brought  him  to  the  larger  liberty  of  a  child  of 
God.  From  his  village  home  a  few  miles  from  Tai 
Ku  he  walked  nearly  every  Sunday  to  attend  Church. 
When  the  trouble  broke  out  he  left  his  four  motherless 
children  with  relatives  who  were  not  Christians,  and 
for  weeks  he  helped  the  missionaries  guard  the  com- 
pound at  Tai  Ku.  When  the  end  came  he  was  one  of 
the  ten  or  more  who  managed  in  some  way  to  escape 
from  the  back  of  the  compound,  and  to  get  outside  the 
city  into  a  field  of  high  grain.  There  he  hid  until  dark- 
ness fell ;  then  hurried  to  a  village  about  seven  miles 
away,  where  an  uncle  lived.  Either  through  the 
treachery  of  this  heathen  uncle  or  the  watchfulness 
of  the  village  Boxers,  he  was  at  once  seized  and  bound, 
and  before  morning  came  he  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Boxers  in  the  east  suburb  of  Tai  Ku.  Report  says  that 
the  Boxers  gathered  around  him  with  their  threatening 
swords  and  asked,  "Are  you  a  member  of  the  Church?" 
"I  am,"  he  replied.    "If  you  are  a  Church  member  we 


48o      CHINA'S  BOOK  01^  MARTYRS 

will  kill  you."    "Then  kill  me."    His  body  was  cut  into 
fragments. 

DEACON  IvIU 

The  giant  frame,  the  heroic  spirit,  the  eloquent 
tongue,  the  earnest  heart  of  Liu  Feng  Chih  made  him 
the  best  known,  best  loved  helper  in  the  American 
Board  mission  in  Shansi.  He  was  the  firstfruit  of 
the  work  in  Tai  Ku,  a  man  who  had  wasted  his  sub- 
stance in  riotous  living,  a  gambler,  an  opium-taker,  a 
man  of  violent  temper  whom  none  dared  to  offend,  yet  a 
man  of  good  education  and  great  ability,  a  leader  in 
all  affairs  in  his  native  village.  At  the  age  of  forty- 
seven,  no  longer  wealthy,  the  slave  of  opium,  of  which 
he  took  about  three  ounces  a  day,  he  went  to  the  Tai 
Ku  missionaries,  and,  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Atwood 
and  others,  he  was  soon  a  free  man.  He  was  employed 
as  teacher  in  the  boys'  school,  where  he  was  con- 
stantly under  Christian  influences,  and,  after  making  a 
careful  study  of  the  Bible,  heart  and  head  were  won 
for  Christ.  Wine  and  tobacco  were  put  away,  the 
quick  temper  was  subdued,  and  in  1891  Liu  Feng  Chih 
was  baptized.  Although  for  years  he  still  had  charge 
of  the  boys'  school,  he  liked  best  to  preach,  and  often 
he  might  be  seen  in  the  street  chapel  while  one  of  his 
older  scholars  taught  classes  for  him.  His  natural  elo- 
quence gained  new  force  from  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  Bible,  which  he  read  whenever  his  duties  allowed 
him  a  few  moments  of  leisure.  During  the  last  years 
of  his  life  freedom  from  school  duties  gave  him  larger 
opportunities  for  Bible  study,  and  for  the  preaching 
which  he  loved. 

His  wife  followed  him  into  the  Church  a  few  years 
later.  Though  crippled  from  disease  so  that  her  body 
was  bent  almost  double,  she  had  a  sunny  spirit,  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      481 

under  the  mellowing  influence  of  Christianity  she  de- 
veloped a  lovely  character. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Liu  were  not  yet  sixty  when  the 
Boxer  trouble  came  upon  them.  Mrs.  Liu,  with  her 
son,  daughter-in-law,  and  four  grandchildren  lived  in 
the  village  of  Che  Wang,  twelve  miles  from  Tai  Ku, 
while  Deacon  Liu  was  still  at  his  post  of  duty  in  the 
mission.  Once  after  the  storm  broke,  his  family  came 
to  him ;  but  when  it  was  plain  that  the  most  dangerous 
place  in  all  that  region  was  that  mission  compound, 
Deacon  Liu  sent  his  wife  and  grandchildren  back  to 
their  village  home,  and  set  his  face  steadfastly  toward 
the  martyrdom  which  awaited  him.  He  was  a  strength 
and  a  comfort  to  the  little  band  of  imprisoned  mission- 
aries, going  often  to  the  yamen  to  see  the  officials, 
though  he  knew  that  all  such  efforts  were  useless  unless 
the  government's  attitude  changed. 

When  a  proclamation  was  issued  ordering  all  Prot- 
estants and  Catholics  to  renounce  their  faith,  and  those 
who  were  living  in  mission  compounds  to  leave  the  for- 
eigners, relatives  of  Deacon  Liu  who  were  not  Chris- 
tians renewed  their  importunities  that  he  leave  the 
missionaries.  He  never  for  a  moment  wavered  in  his 
purpose.  Then  his  brother  made  out  a  statement 
that  Liu  Feng  Chih  had  renounced  the  foreign  re- 
ligion, and  gave  it  to  the  officials.  He  did  not  know 
it,  he  was  powerless  to  prevent  it,  and  neither  by  friends 
nor  foes  was  he  finally  reckoned  with  the  recanters. 

For  a  time,  about  the  middle  of  July,  the  mission- 
aries talked  of  flight,  but  Deacon  Liu  refused  to  go. 
"I  have  hoped  to  shed  my  blood  for  the  Lord.  Flight 
for  me  is  useless ;  wherever  I  go  I  shall  be  recognized. 
If  it  is  the  Lord's  will  that  I  die,  and  he  lets  the  Boxers 
come,  I  will  die  here.  I  shall  not  go  a  step  from  the 
mission." 


482      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

To  his  natuml  bravery  was  added  a  wonderful 
calmness.  He  was  not  afraid  of  evil  tidings ;  his  heart 
was  fixed,  trusting  in  the  Lord.  More  than  once,  when 
the  alarm  was  given  that  the  Boxers  were  upon  them, 
he  sat  unmoved  in  his  room.  He  paid  not  the  least 
heed  to  the  alarming  rumors  which  came  day  by  day ; 
but  when  the  report  of  the  terrible  massacre  at  Tai 
Yuan  Fu  was  confirmed,  he  shed  tears  of  bitter  sorrow. 

On  July  19th  Deacon  Liu  heart  a  report  that  the 
Boxers  had  attacked  his  family  in  their  village  home, 
and  killed  all.  The  report  was  exaggerated,  but  Dea- 
con Liu  had  no  reason  to  doubt  it  at  the  time.  Soon 
after  this  he  was  called  to  the  yamen,  and  told  that  his 
life  would  be  spared  if  he  would  only  renounce  his 
faith  and  come  out  of  the  Jesus  Church.  "What  a  com- 
ing out  that  would  be !"  said  he.  ''With  my  family  all 
destroyed,  what  would  I  come  out  to?  The  only  favor 
I  have  to  ask  of  you  is,  that  when  you  kill  me,  you  will 
do  it  as  quickly  as  possible." 

Not  even  the  foreigners  were  as  much  hated  by 
those  who  loved  darkness  as  was  Deacon  Liu.  Was 
he  not  recreant  to  the  faith  of  his  fathers?  was  he  not 
a  traitor  to  his  country?  In  his  faithful  preaching  he 
had  never  shrunk  from  probing  the  wounds  of  sin,  and 
hundreds  who  had  resisted  the  promptings  of  con- 
science, stirred  by  his  earnest  words,  joined  the  cry, 
"Kill  Liu  Feng  Chih,"  which  often  sounded  through 
the  city,  and  even  reached  the  ears  of  the  untroubled 
saint  who  was  soon  to  be  their  victim. 

It  was  the  morning  of  July  31st,  and  mission- 
aries and  fifteen  or  twenty  Chinese  gathered  as  usual 
for  prayers.  Mr.  Liu  was  the  leader,  and  after  reading 
Ephesians,  i,  1-6,  he  spoke  with  unusual  fervor  of  the 
early  martyrdom  in  the  Church,  reviewing  the  history  of 
persecutions  from  the  time  of  Christ  down  through  the 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      483 

ages.  For  nearly  an  hour  he  poured  out  words  of  com- 
fort and  exhortation  to  steadfastness ;  then  they  sang 
the  hymn,  "My  soul,  be  on  thy  guard,"  closing  with 
the  words, 

"  Then  persevere  till  death 

Shall  bring  thee  to  thy  God; 
He  '11  take  thee,  at  thy  parting  breath, 
To  his  divine  abode." 

God  fulfilled  that  promise  for  Deacon  Liu  at  three 
o'clock  that  afternoon.  Just  as  the  Boxers  entered  the 
mission  compound,  a  young  man  ran  and  warned  the 
beloved  helper.  He  still  sat  motionless  in  his  room, 
drinking  his  tea  and  fanning  himself.  Of  his  last  mo- 
ments there  are  different  reports,  one  being  that  he 
slowly  out  of  his  room  to  meet  the  Boxers,  saying, 
"If  you  have  come  to  kill,  kill  me  first."  All  the  re- 
ports agree  as  to  the  perfect  calmness  with  which  he 
went  to  meet  the  Master  who  had  died  to  redeem  him 
from  a  life  of  sin. 

DEACON  Liu's  WIFE 

Mrs.  Liu  was  living  in  the  village  of  Che  Wang, 
twelve  miles  from  Tai  Ku,  with  her  son,  daughter- 
in-law,  and  four  grandchildren.  The  son  was  a  worth- 
less wretch,  addicted  to  opium.  Just  before  the  dawn 
of  the  morning  of  July  19th  relatives  gave  warning 
that  the  Boxers  had  come  to  the  village.  The  son, 
taking  with  him  his  oldest  boy,  ran  at  once,  and,  look- 
ing back  from  a  village,  two  miles  away,  they  saw  the 
flames  rising  from  their  burning  home.  His  wife,  who 
had  turned  back  to  get  some  forgotten  money,  was 
hacked  down  by  Boxer  knives.  Mrs.  Liu  and  her  three 
grandchildren  had  started  to  flee  when  the  alarm  was 
given ;  but  with  her  crippled  body  she  could  only  crawl 
a  few  steps  at  a  time.     Neighbors  half  dragged,  half 


484      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

carried  her  to  a  temple,  the  children  following.  There 
the  Boxers  found  her,  and  tried  to  make  her  bow  to 
the  idols.  She  said,  "I  am  already  bent  double;  but 
if  you  want  me  to  say  that  I  do  not  believe  in  Jesus,  I 
can  not  say  so,  for  I  do  believe  in  him."  Neighbors 
pleaded  that  she  might  be  spared  because  of  her  age  and 
infirmity.  They  went  security  for  her,  and  there  being 
no  Boxer  organization  in  the  village  of  Che  Wang,  she 
was  allowed  to  live.  It  was  hard  for  Mrs.  Liu  to  an- 
swer the  questions  of  her  little  grandchildren :  "Why 
does  n't  mother  come  ?"  "What  has  become  of  father?" 
"Will  the  Heavenly  Father  protect  us  here  at  the  tem- 
ple?" She  replied:  "We  must  trust  in  God.  Our 
Heavenly  Father  watches  over  us  and  knows  all.  He 
will  protect  us."  The  heartless  neighbors  laughed,  and 
told  her  she  had  better  go  to  the  city  of  Tai  Ku  to  pro- 
tect her  husband  if  she  felt  so  confident  of  protection, 
for  the  Boxers  had  cut  off  his  head.  This  was  not  true 
at  the  time;  but  it  was  a  prophecy  of  what  happened 
only  twelve  days  later.  For  Mrs.  Liu  and  the  little 
children  there  awaited  a  suffering  worse  than  death. 
The  neighbors  did  not  dare  to  give  them  food  or  money ; 
even  the  single  cash  bestowed  on  the  ordinary  beggar 
was  withheld.  One  of  the  children  had  three  cash, 
and  all  begged  for  hours  to  get  two  more,  so  that  they 
could  buy  a  biscuit  for  the  motherless  baby.  Their 
home  was  gone ;  their  relatives  dared  not  harbor  them ; 
there  seemed  nothing  left  to  them  but  to  starve  on  the 
street.  In  an  old  deserted  ruin  they  found  a  partial 
shelter,  and  here  Mrs.  Liu  spent  several  months.  Her 
son  and  his  oldest  boy  returned  after  a  month  or  two 
of  wandering  in  the  mountains.  When  he  went  beg- 
ging for  his  mother  he  was  met  with  curses  and  asked, 
"What!  is  not  the  old  thing  dead  yet?" 

In  February  death  and  starvation  seemed  the  un- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      485 

avoidable  fate  of  the  whole  family,  and  Mrs.  Liu's 
son  decided  to  sell  one  of  his  little  girls  to  provide  food 
for  the  others  and  opium  for  himself.  Mrs.  Liu's 
words  had  no  iniluence  on  her  depraved  son.  The 
bargain  was  made,  and  poor  Mrs.  Liu  had  lain  two 
days  in  a  swoon,  utterly  prostrated  with  grief,  when  Li 
Yii  came  to  her  bringing  some  money,  the  first  drops 
of  the  shower  of  relief  coming  from  America. 

In  March  came  an  issue  of  grain  by  the  Tai  Ku 
magistrate  as  ordered  by  his  superiors  from  Tai  Yuan 
Fu,  who,  through  fear  of  the  German  soldiers,  were 
endeavoring  hurriedly  to  patch  up  matters  with  the 
Christians.  Through  the  help  of  Li  Yu,  the  Liu  fam- 
ily secured  enough  to  keep  them  from  hunger  until 
the  arrival  of  Dr.  Atwood  in  Shansi  in  July.  As  soon 
as  possible  Dr.  Atwood  visited  the  village  of  Che 
Wang.  A  feast  was  spread  for  the  occasion  by  the 
magistrate,  who  showed  the  utmost  anxiety  to  atone 
for  the  past  hardships  of  Christians,  feeling  that  even 
his  own  life  depended  on  it.  A  demonstration  of  Chris- 
tian charity  was  made  in  the  village  at  the  time.  About 
two  hundred  of  the  poorest  people  in  the  village  were 
presented  with  several  hundred  cash  apiece,  while  a 
few  public  remarks  explained  that  Christianity  stands 
to  show  mercy  and  love,  not  to  display  hatred  even  of 
those  who  have  injured  us.  In  Mrs.  Liu's  extremity, 
scarce  one  in  the  village  had  been  found  to  take  pity 
on  her,  and  now  that  she  was  raised  above  her  poverty 
and  distress  she  cherished  no  feeling  of  resentment 
toward  her  neighbors,  but  pitied  them  in  their  hunger 
and  distress. 

In  a  gate-house  connected  with  the  park  where  her 
husband  lies  buried,  Mrs.  Liu  and  her  family  are  liv- 
ing. In  all  these  troubles  through  which  she  passed, 
her  faith  was  sorely  tried,  but  never  was  it  lost.   Serene 


486      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

and  happy  with  the  grandchildren  at  play  in  the  park 
near  her  door,  she  helps  to  make  their  clothes  and  sup- 
ply their  needs,  looking  forward  longingly  to  the  time 
when  her  crippled  body  shall  be  laid  to  rest  beside  that 
of  her  noble  husband,  and  she  may  join  him  in  the  land 
of  peace. 

"  For  such  Death's  portal  opens  not  in  gloom, 
But  its  pure  crystal,  hinged  on  solid  gold, 
Shows  avenues  interminable,  shows 
Amaranth  and  palm  quivering  in  sweet  accord 
Of  human,  mingled  with  angelic  song." 


CHAPTER  XII 

IN  MEMORIAM 

"These  are  they  that  come  out  of  the  great  tribulation,  and 
they  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb.  Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of  God ;  and 
they  serve  him  day  and  night  in  his  temple." 

The  summer  rains  of  1901  beat  down  upon  thou- 
sands of  nameless  graves,  while  for  months  Boxer 
bands  roamed  at  will,  searching  in  every  lonely  hut  and 
hamlet  for  fugitive  Christians  who  might  have  escaped 
their  swords.  Then  came  the  tramp  of  armies  execut- 
ing dire  vengeance,  and  again  fire  and  sword  wrought 
desolation.  It  was  the  turn  of  the  Boxers  to  flee,  while 
back  from  their  hiding-places  in  mountain-caves,  and  be- 
yond the  Great  Wall,  and  from  the  beleaguered  lega- 
tions, came  haggard,  anxious  Christians.  Again  they 
sought  the  spots  which  they  had  once  called  home.  They 
uncovered  the  pits  into  which  the  cofiinless  bodies  had 
been  thrown ;  they  searched  by  the  wayside  for  dog- 
gnawed  bones ;  they  tried,  amid  the  ruined  walls  of 
cities,  to  distinguish  between  the  victims  of  the  Box- 
ers and  the  victims  of  the  allies.  Sometimes  a  long 
braid  of  hair,  an  earth-stained  garment,  would  be  the 
only  means  of  identifying  the  remains  of  a  loved  one. 
Sometimes  no  trace  could  be  found. 

As  the  months  passed  by,  long  conferences  were 
held  between  representatives  of  the  Church  and  officials 
or  village  elders.  The  result  was  the  holding  of  memo- 
rial services  for  the  martyrs,  both  missionaries  and 

487 


488      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Chinese.  They  were  gorgeous  pageants;  they  were 
the  most  touching  services  which  could  hallow  the 
memory  of  our  sacred  dead.  On  the  part  of  the  offi- 
cials they  were  expiatory ;  hence  the  pageantry  and 
pomp.  On  the  part  of  fellow-Christians  who  had  es- 
caped the  edge  of  the  sword  they  were  the  tribute  of 
love. 

Not  until  January,  when  a  German  army  pressed 
into  the  mountain  passes  of  Shansi,  were  the  precious 
remains  of  the  missionaries  placed  in  coffins ;  and  then 
it  was  only  pauper  coffins.  But  early  in  July  a  party 
of  missionaries  guarded  by  Chinese  soldiers  entered 
the  horror-haunted  province.  Just  a  year  after  the 
massacre  of  forty-five  missionaries  and  a  number  of 
Christians  in  Tai  Yuan  Fu  the  party  was  received  in 
that  city  by  the  highest  provincial  authorities,  with  all 
possible  honor  and  pomp.    Dr.  Atwood  writes : 

"Just  a  year  ago  to-day  their  bodies  were  lying  un- 
cared  for  near  the  governor's  yamen,  only  a  few  hun- 
dred yards  from  where  we  are  now  staying.  .  .  . 
Their  radiant  glory  can  borrow  nothing  from  this 
hollow  show.  If  they  can  see  and  know  our  affairs, 
they  will  be  satisfied  to  know  that  it  is  for  the  good 
and  hope  of  the  kingdom  in  China  that  we  endure 
official  ceremony.  .  .  .  The  gates  are  being  lifted 
up  that  the  King  of  Glory  may  come  in." 

Again  we  quote  from  Dr.  Atwood's  description  of 
his  reception  at  Tai  Ku,  July  23,  1901 : 

''When  we  arrived  at  Pei  Ts'un,  ten  li  north  of  Tai 
Ku,  we  saw  outside  the  village  a  crowd  of  people,  with 
soldiers  and  twenty-four  flags,  two  of  which  proved 
to  be  'Old  Glory.'  I  got  down  from  my  cart  and  went 
forward  to  salute  the  gentry  of  the  town,  who  had 
gathered  for  the  purpose  in  their  state  clothes.    A  large 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      489 

booth  of  various-colored  cloth  had  been  erected  for  the 
occasion,  and  here,  amid  the  booming  of  cannon,  I  sa- 
luted the  Tai  Ku  district  magistrate  and  the  other  lower 
officials  and  gentry,  and,  after  partaking  of  tea  and 
cake,  we  saluted  once  more,  and  a  detail  of  soldiers, 
bowing  on  one  knee,  with  one  hand  on  the  ground, 
gave  the  royal  "Awh,"  as  I  entered  the  sedan-chair 
provided  by  the  magistrate  for  my  entrance  into  the 
city.  Then  the  cannon  fired  another  salute,  and  the 
procession  started  off,  'Old  Glory'  leading. 

"When  we  came  to  the  banks  of  the  Wa  Ma  River, 
we  began  to  meet  crowds  of  people.  Under  the  shade 
of  the  willows,  on  a  grassy  spot,  was  a  group  of  men 
and  boys  with  cleaner  faces  and  gowns  than  the  others, 
and  from  a  distance  I  guessed  at  once  who  they  were. 
They  were  the  remnant  of  our  poor  Tai  Ku  Church. 
A  smile  chased  the  shadows  from  their  faces  as  I 
passed,  giving  them  a  salute  from  the  chair.  .  .  . 
We  wound  through  the  principal  streets,  around  by 
the  yamen,  and  up  to  this  palatial  residence  which  the 
magistrate  has  fitted  up  in  elegant  style  with  K'ung 
Hsiang  Hsi's  help. 

"The  Church  members  soon  began  to  call,  and  my 
heart  as  well  as  my  hands  were  full  to  overflowing. 
Fa  Ch'eng  (grandson  of  Deacon  Liu)  came  in,  and 
I  swept  him  into  my  arms,  and  we  clung  together 
and  sobbed  in  a  helpless  kind  of  way  for  a  moment." 

The  Tai  Ku  officials  decided  to  give  a  beautiful 
park  about  a  mile  east  of  the  city,  for  a  cemetery. 
Three  days  after  the  Tai  Ku  tragedy  the  bodies  of  the 
missionaries,  with  the  Chinese  who  perished  with  them, 
had  been  carted  outside  the  south  gate  of  the  city,  and 
slightly  buried  in  a  pit  where  ashes  and  refuse  were 
dumped.    In  January  the  poor  remains  had  been  iden- 


490'     CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

tified  by  Christian  survivors,  and  under  official  direc- 
tion were  buried  in  a  piece  of  waste  ground  outside  the 
west  gate. 

On  August  9th  there  was  a  unique  pageant.  It 
began  at  that  dishonored  graveyard  outside  the  city 
wall.  Three  long  pavilions,  forming  three  sides  of  a 
square,  had  been  erected,  and  in  these,  amid  flowers 
and  embroidered  silk  banners,  encased  in  fine  coffins, 
rested  the  precious  remains  of  our  dead.  In  the  cen- 
tral pavilion  were  the  six  Tai  Ku  missionaries,  at  the 
right  were  the  bodies  of  the  ten  who  had  been  slain 
near  Fen  Chou  Fu,  while  on  the  left  were  fourteen  cof- 
fins marked  with  the  names  of  Chinese  martyrs — Dea- 
con Liu,  Ruth,  Dr.  Sang,  and  others  whose  martyr- 
dom has  been  recorded.  After  the  ceremonies  here,  a 
long  procession  formed.  With  the  thirty  catafalques, 
each  borne  by  twenty  men,  with  the  scores  of  bearers 
of  banners  and  insignia  of  honor,  went  six  mission- 
aries, all  of  the  officials  and  gentry  of  the  city,  and  the 
white-robed  Chinese  mourners.  Through  the  thronged 
street  the  procession  slowly  made  its  way  to  the  ruins 
of  that  mission  compound  in  the  city,  the  sacred  scene 
of  martyrdom.  After  a  short  service  here,  the  proces- 
sion started  for  the  cemetery.  It  stretched  a  mile 
through  the  country  roads.  In  the  beautiful  park,  with 
imposing  ceremonies,  the  Chinese  officials  and  gentry 
paid  honor  to  those  for  whose  death  they  or  their 
predecessors  had  been  responsible.  Then  they  with- 
drew, and  with  simple  Christian  rites  our  martyred 
dead  were  laid  to  rest  beneath  the  gigantic  elms,  amid 
the  flowers.  Close  by  the  graves  of  the  missionaries 
were  the  fourteen  Chinese  graves,  arranged  in  a  semi- 
circle. 

Outside  the  gate  of  this  park  stands  a  beautiful 
monument.     On  the  central  slab  of  black  marble  are 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      491 

graven  the  names  of  thirty  martyrs,  while  one  of  the 
inscriptions  reads : 

"They  sacrificed  themselves  for  the  Truth,  which 
shall  overflow  to  the  remotest  bounds." 

*God  grant  that  it  may! 

During  September  and  October  funeral  services 
were  held  for  the  martyred  Christians  in  nine  villages 
within  a  radius  of  ten  miles  from  Tai  Ku.  Including 
the  Tai  Ku  funeral,  eighty  Chinese  martyrs  were  laid 
to  rest. 

MemoriaIv  Sevices  in  T'ungchou  Outstations 

The  following  account  of  services  held  for  eighty- 
three  martyrs  who  were  killed  in  five  towns  and  vil- 
lages near  T'ungchou  is  taken,  with  slight  changes, 
from  The  Missionary  Review: 

In  March,  1901,  a  strange  procession  moved 
through  the  bare,  brown  fields  between  Peking  and 
T'ungchou.  At  the  head  rode  a  lieutenant  of  cavalry 
with  six  men ;  then  came  two  great  army  wagons,  fol- 
lowed by  three  more  cavalrymen ;  then  a  long  line  of 
thirty-six  Peking  carts.  The  first  two  were  occupied 
by  missionary  ladies ;  the  others  by  Chinese  men,  wo- 
men, and  children.  There  was  also  a  white  sedan-chair, 
in  which  a  young  Chinese  woman  was  carried.  Two 
missionaries  on  horseback  completed  the  cavalcade. 
Some  of  the  carts  were  covered  with  white^,  the  Chi- 
nese token  of  mourning. 

We  passed  a  corner  and  turned  down  a  street  lead- 
ing to  a  great  threshing-floor  on  the  edge  of  the  village 
of  Fu  Ho.  In  front  paced  the  cavalry,  their  yellow- 
lined  blue  capes  fluttering  in  the  breeze ;  behind  lum- 
bered the  army  wagons  and  carts.  Under  a  line  of 
booths  about  fifty  yards  long,  extending  along  one  side 


492      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

of  the  threshing-floor,  stood  a  long  row  of  coffins,  side 
by  side.  They  were  all  labeled,  and  six  little  orphans 
were  soon  standing  by  the  side  of  the  bodies  of  father  or 
mother.  Kao  Hsin,  with  face  very  white  but  very 
calm,  led  us  from  one  end  of  the  row  to  the  other. 
Near  the  middle  was  the  coffin  of  his  mother,  and,  on 
it  he  laid  two  crosses  of  flowers  which  had  been  handed 
him  as  he  left  his  cart.  There,  too,  were  his  wife  and 
two  boys,  his  wife's  mother,  and  other  relatives.  Be- 
yond were  four  coffins  marked  with  the  names  of 
teacher  Ts'ao,  of  the  college,  his  wife,  and  two  daugh- 
ters. His  ten-year-old  boy,  the  only  one  of  the  family 
left,  covered  his  face  with  his  hands  and  sobbed.  There 
were  few  dry  eyes  in  all  the  company  of  Christians. 
The  crowd  of  onlookers — many  of  them  the  leading 
men  of  the  town  who  were  managing  the  funeral  and 
entertaining  the  company,  more  of  them  simply  idlers 
who  had  come  to  enjoy  the  excitement — was  absolutely 
quiet,  perhaps  awed  into  silence  by  the  pathos  of  the 
scene;  perhaps  some  of  them  humbled  with  contrition 
as  they  thought  of  their  part  in  last  summer's  carnival 
of  crime.  Now  and  then  we  would  catch  the  old-time 
leer  or  look  of  scorn  which  ever  of  yore  greeted  the 
"foreign  devil"  when  he  faced  a  heathen  crowd.  But 
either  sympathy  for  our  sorrow  or  a  wholesome  respect 
for  the  military  escort  kept  the  swarming  hundreds 
very  quiet. 

The  funeral  services  were  held  the  next  morning 
on  the  threshing-floor.  No  room  at  any  place  which 
we  visited  would  have  held  the  crowds.  The  white- 
robed  mourners  stood  each  by  the  coffins  of  his  own 
friends,  and  white  sashes  for  mourning  badges  were 
given  to  all  who  cared  to  wear  them.  The  leader  stood 
opposite  the  booth  containing  the  coffins,  and  in  front 
of  another  long  booth  hung  full  of  scrolls  presented 


n  X    ^ 

—  ii.     C 
S  -    r 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      493 

by  outsiders,  "Dying  for  the  Truth,"  "Seeing  Danger, 
Sacrificing  Life,"  "His  Place  is  in  Heaven,"  were  a  few 
of  the  mottoes.  The  eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews  was 
read,  and  seemed  very  appropriate  for  those  who  had 
been  "tortured,  not  accepting  deliverance,"  and  "had 
trial  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings,"  were  stoned 
or  "slain  with  the  sword,"  or  had  "wandered  in  deserts 
and  in  mountains,  and  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth." 

We  stood  a  long  time  in  the  newly-made  cemetery 
while  the  coffins  were  being  lowered  and  a  touching 
service  held.  This  "God's  acre"  will  ever  be  a  sacred 
spot. 

At  the  village  of  Ts'ao-Fang  eleven  cofiins  were 
arranged  under  an  awning  by  the  wayside,  only  a  few 
rods  from  the  ruins  of  one  of  the  homes  of  the  Chris- 
tians. It  was  in  the  early  twilight  that  the  Boxers 
set  fire  to  the  house,  killing  two  old  ladies  and  a  four- 
year-old  boy.  Two  eleven-year-old  girls,  one  of  them 
the  daughter  of  Li  Te  Kuei,  escaped  in  the  darkness, 
and,  after  perils  manifold  and  marvelous  escapes,  found 
a  haven  of  rest  with  us  in  Peking  last  October.  Both 
were  with  us  that  day.  The  coffins  which  this  village 
had  provided  were  poorer  than  at  the  other  places,  and 
the  attitude  of  the  crowd  seemed  less  sympathetic. 
Those  who  were  mourning  their  loved  ones  felt  it,  and 
the  woman  who  sat  beside  me,  near  the  coffin  of  her 
child,  with  that  of  her  mother-in-law  just  beyond,  said 
firmly  before  the  service  began :  "I  will  not  cry.  That 
would  only  fulfill  the  wish  of  your  hearts."  The  proud 
eyes  did  not  shed  a  tear,  the  resolute  voice  sang  every 
verse  of  the  familiar  hymn.  The  service  over,  the 
lid  of  her  mother's  coffin  was  lifted,  and  Mrs.  Li  looked 
into  the  coffin ;  then,  with  head  raised  proudly  and 
burning  black  eyes,  she  faced  the  crowd.  "See  what 
you  have  done !    Just  one  or  two  poor  bones  left  to  put 


494      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

in  this  coffin!  And  she  never  hurt  a  soul  in  this  vil- 
lage, not  even  a  dog.  I  can  stand  here  and  look  in  the 
faces  of  some  of  the  men  who  did  this !" 

Early  Friday  morning  we  were  on  our  way  south- 
ward to  our  largest  country  field,  and  memories  flooded 
in  upon  us  as  we  traveled  the  familiar  road.  About 
noon  we  approached  Niu  AIu  T'un,  where  our  first 
T'ungchou  martyrs  died  on  the  night  of  June  6th.  A 
mile  away  we  could  see  the  crowds  awaiting  us,  and 
some  of  the  gentry  of  the  town  came  out  to  meet  us. 
In  our  party  was  the  evangelist,  Mr.  Li,  stationed  at  this 
place  last  year,  who  saw  his  father  and  his  bride  of  a 
few  weeks  brutally  butchered,  and  was  himself  left  for 
dead  amid  the  smoking  ruins  of  his  home,  with  a  spear 
wound  in  the  abdomen,  and  face  and  hands  a  mass  of 
blisters.  The  bodies  of  thirteen  belonging  to  the 
Church  at  this  point  had  been  laid  in  coffins.  A  few 
were  killed  after  fleeing  to  other  places. 

It  was  a  ride  of  six  miles  from  this  place  to  Yung 
Le  Tien,  our  largest  outstation  in  this  region.  Our 
Helpers'  Home,  our  chapel,  our  building  for  women's 
classes,  had  stood  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  This 
had  been  one  of  the  happiest  of  our  Christian  homes, 
where  love  and  mutual  helpfulness  reigned ;  where  the 
unselfish  father  was  never  too  tired  to  teach  his  chil- 
dren at  the  close  of  a  day's  work ;  where  the  sick  and 
sorrowing  and  suffering  always  knew  they  would  find 
a  welcome.  Here,  too,  the  missionaries  were  eagerly 
welcomed,  and  we  all  loved  Li  Te  Kuei  as  a  brother. 

We  drove  past  the  ruins  of  this  once  happy  home. 
Only  a  few  yards  beyond,  close  beside  the  street,  in  a 
matting  booth,  were  coffins  containing  the  bodies  of  Li 
Te  Kuei,  his  wife,  and  three  youngest  children,  with 
nine  other  Christians.  On  both  sides  of  the  street  there 
was  a  sea  of  heads.    Our  carts  stopped,  and  Mr.  Li's 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      495 

oldest  son  and  two  daughters,  who  were  away  at  school 
when  the  storm  burst,  walked  slowly  toward  those  cof- 
fins. Poor,  grief-stricken  children  !  The  day  before, 
at  Fu  Ho  and  Ts'ao  Fang,  they  had  stood  beside  the 
graves  of  both  their  grandmothers  and  many  others 
who  were  near  and  dear  to  them.  What  wonder  that 
sixteen-year-old  Shu  Ch'uan  and  eleven-year-old  Shu 
Ch'eng  leaned  against  the  coffins  in  a  passion  of  grief, 
and  sobbed  quietly  all  through  the  service!  Mr.  Li's 
wife  was  the  only  sister  of  Kao  Hsin,  the  evangelist, 
who  had  buried  so  many  loved  ones  at  Fu  Ho,  and  we 
noted  his  pale,  set  face  as  he  looked  into  the  coffins. 
Mrs.  Yang,  the  woman  who  had  lain  bound  by  the 
roadside  and  seen  her  two  children,  her  only  ones, 
slowly  stabbed  to  death,  looked  into  her  little  girl's  cof- 
fin, standing  with  others  in  that  long  row,  and  could 
still  distinguish  where  a  spear-thrust  had  wounded  the 
little  cheek,  just  as  she  had  seen  it  that  June  day.  For 
some  reason  this  wayside  grave,  in  which  Mr.  Li  and 
those  who  suffered  martyrdom  with  him  were  buried 
together,  was  dug  deeper  than  usual,  so  the  summer 
rains  and  heat  had  not  penetrated  it. 

Of  all  the  meetings,  this  left  the  most  vivid  impres- 
sion on  my  mind.  I  shall  never  forget  how  we  tried  to 
sing,  "For  me  to  live  is  Christ,"  to  the  accompaniment 
of  suppressed  sobs,  surrounded  by  that  crowd,  half  cu- 
rious, half  awed.  While  one  of  Mr.  Li's  classmates  in 
college  and  theological  seminary,  with  eyes  bright  with 
tears,  was  paying  a  loving  tribute  to  his  memory,  a 
newcomer  pushed  his  way  to  the  front  with  a  rather 
festive  air.  It  stirred  the  indignation  of  the  speaker. 
"Do  n't  come  here  as  if  to  some  merry  show.  You  should 
bow  your  heads  with  shame ;  you  should  weep  with 
these  children   whom   you   have   made  orphans." 

Everywhere  the  statement  was  made  that  the  "Jesus 


496      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Church"  would  not  avenge  the  blood  of  its  martyrs. 
"Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord." 
"The  only  reparation  you  can  make,"  said  one,  "the  best 
monument  to  the  memory  of  the  noble  dead,  is  for  you 
all  to  turn  to  the  Lord  and  Master  for  whom  they  laid 
down  their  lives." 

It  was  too  late  to  go  to  the  cemetery  that  night.  We 
slept  in  a  temple  just  outside  the  gate  of  the  walled 
town.  The  next  morning  was  fair  and  beautiful,  with 
a  promise  of  spring  in  the  air  as  we  stood  by  the  graves 
of  the  martyrs.  The  wheatfields  were  beginning  to 
show  a  faint  tinge  of  green.  "Except  a  grain  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone ; 
but  if  it  die,  it  beareth  much  fruit."  It  is  the  faith  and 
hope  that  in  the  coming  years  we  shall  see  the  "much 
fruit"  of  all  this  bloodshed  and  agony  that  comforts  us 
in  these  dark  hours.  On  the  ride  of  twenty-five  miles 
back  to  Peking,  the  words  of  the  hymn  sung  at  the 
grave  kept  ringing  in  my  ears: 

"  Sheaves  after  sowing, 

Sun  after  rain ; 
Sight  after  mystery, 

Peace  after  pain ; 
Joy  after  sorrow, 

Calm  after  blast ; 
Rest  after  weariness, 

Sweet  rest  at  last." 

Memoriai.  Services  in  T'ungchou  City 

Wicked,  bloodstained  T'ungchou  received  at  the 
hands  of  Russians,  French,  and  Japanese  double  for 
all  her  sins.  In  the  summer  of  1900  the  site  of  two 
mission  compounds  was  marked  by  desolate  ruins;  not 
one  brick  left  upon  another;  not  a  tree  or  shrub  or 
spear  of  grass.  Where  Christian  homes  or  schools 
once  stood,  there  was  the  same  dreary  desolation,  and 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      497 

post-office,  telegraph-office,  foreign  mill,  everything 
which  bore  the  mark  of  the  hated  foreigner,  had  been 
wiped  out  in  that  terrible  storm.  It  was  August  when 
the  other  storm  came.  Huddled  together  on  the  old, 
gray  walls  of  T'ungchou,  women  and  children  gazed 
with  horror-stricken  eyes  at  the  bloodshed  and  rape  and 
wanton  cruelty  of  the  avenging  Russians ;  then  mothers 
grasped  their  young  daughters  by  the  hand,  and  down 
they  sprang  from  the  dizzy  height  to  meet  kind  death. 
Wells  were  choked  with  the  bodies  of  suicides.  A 
frenzied  mother  plunged  her  little  one  headforemost 
into  a  large  water- jar;  she  would  escape  the  agony  of 
seeing  it  impaled  on  a  bayonet.  Again  cringing  dogs 
and  carrion  birds  feasted.  Flame  and  explosion  added 
their  blight  and  havoc.  Then  there  might  have  been 
written  on  the  ruins  of  the  city  of  T'ungchou  the  curse 
of  Babylon.  Of  the  nameless  corpses  lying  in  her 
deserted  streets,  decaying  in  her  wells  and  ponds,  who 
could  tell  which  were  victims  of  the  Boxers ;  which  of 
the  avenging  armies?  For  over  a  year  these  armies 
occupied  the  dreary  city.  Slowly  the  tides  of  life 
surged  back  into  her  streets.  Fugitives  returned,  and 
piled  their  bricks  and  adobe  into  the  semblance  of  a 
home  Once  more  her  rivers  and  canals  pulsated  with 
passing  boats  ;  and  a  new  sound  was  heard, — the  shriek 
of  the  locomotive,  the  rumble  of  the  long  train  as  it 
rushed  in  from  Peking.  Autumn  saw  the  departure 
of  the  foreign  army.  Then  missionaries  and  native 
Christians  were  free  to  do  for  their  martyred  dead 
within  the  city  walls  what  they  had  done  in  March  for 
those  in  villages  outside.  On  a  December  day  there 
lay  in  state,  in  a  red  temple  on  the  river  bank,  sixty- 
seven  coffins.  Some  were  empty,  but  on  each  was  in- 
scribed a  name.  There  was  dear  Deacon  Li's ;  there 
were  Mrs.  Keng's  and  Mrs.  T'ang's ;  there  were  tiny 

32 


498      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

coffins,  too,  for  baby  forms.  From  Peking  two  hundred 
went  to  pay  to  the  dead  the  last  tribute  of  loving 
memory.  The  American  minister,  our  beloved  Major 
Conger,  who  shared  our  grief  and  dangers  during  that 
ever-memorable  siege,  was  among  those  who  gathered 
to  honor  our  dead ;  and  to  meet  him  came  the  Chinese 
General  Ma,  while  his  gayly-uniformed  troops  added 
dignity  to  the  pageant.  In  at  the  east  gate  of  the 
city,  out  through  the  south  gate,  marched  the  long 
procession,  sixteen  hundred  bearers  with  the  cata- 
falques and  banners  and  other  regalia,  college  students 
and  friends  in  white  mourning-robes.  It  was  an  hour 
in  passing  the  reviewing  stand,  near  the  ruins  of  the 
city  compound.  In  a  new  God's  acre  outside  the  city, 
near  the  site  where  the  beautiful  college  buildings  once 
stood,  the  sixty-seven  coffins  were  lowered  into  the 
graves,  while  the  white-robed  college  quartet  sang 
songs  of  hope  and  victory  and  peace. 

MEMORIAI.  SERVICES  AT  PAG  TING  FU 
(Taken  from  The  Advance,  with  modifications.) 

About  a  mile  north  of  the  walled  city  of  Pao  Ting 
Fu,  in  the  midst  of  garden  farms  and  hamlet  homes, 
there  stood,  until  June  30,  19CX),  the  buildings  of  the 
Presbyterian  mission.  There  lived  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sim- 
cox,  with  Paul,  Francis,  and  a  beautiful  girl  a  year 
old.  There  lived  Dr.  Taylor,  well  known  throughout 
the  city  for  his  medical  skill  and  devotion  to  the  sick 
and  suffering,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hodge,  charming 
young  missionaries  of  culture  and  devotion. 

On  that  fateful  Saturday  afternoon  did  these  mis- 
sionaries, and  the  nine  faithful  Chinese  who  perished 
with  them,  stand  in  the  windows  of  their  two-story 
houses  and  watch  the  Boxer  horde,  armed  with  cruel 
swords,  moving  over  the  plain  from  the  city?     We 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      499 

know  that  they  all  gathered  in  the  Simcox  house,  and 
that  Dr.  Taylor  tried  to  address  the  mob  from  an  up- 
per window.  He  might  better  have  talked  to  a  cy- 
clone. They  were  mad  with  that  strange,  wild  Boxer 
frenzy,  and  cared  not  that  the  physician's  loving  touch 
had  healed  them  in  happier  days.  Mrs.  Simcox  pleaded 
for  her  winsome  baby ;  but  mother-love  counted  for 
naught  with  that  bloodthirsty  mob.  With  cries  of 
"Kill !  kill !"  they  pressed  close  to  the  house,  and  heaped 
against  it  the  fuel  which  they  had  brought  with  them. 
Villagers  who  mingled  with  the  rabble  tell  how  they 
saw  the  children  running  about  in  the  flames.  Imagi- 
nation must  paint  the  rest.  But  we  know  that,  in  that 
burning,  fiery  furnace.  One  walked  with  them  whose 
form  was  like  the  Son  of  God. 

It  is  a  March  morning,  and  again  the  scene  lies  in 
the  north  suburb.  Again  the  crowds  make  their  way 
out  of  the  city  gates  and  throng  toward  that  spot  which 
the  Boxers  had  desolated  nine  months  before.  Only  a 
few  broken  bricks  marked  the  site.  But  in  a  large 
matting  booth,  in  a  shrine  made  beautiful  with  flow- 
ers, were  inscribed  the  names  of  those  who  had  as- 
cended here  in  a  chariot  of  fire.  On  all  sides  were  hung 
banners  commemorating  the  virtues  of  the  dead,  pre- 
sented by  the  gentry  and  merchants  of  the  city.  In 
the  booth  there  assembled  fifteen  missionaries,  most 
of  whom  had  come  from  Peking,  and  General  von  Ket- 
teler,  and  many  other  German  and  French  officers.  All 
of  the  high  Chinese  officials  in  the  city,  provincial 
treasurer,  provincial  judge,  prefect,  and  magistrate, 
were  there  with  their  retinues. 

Low,  sweet  music  by  the  German  band  opened  the 
quiet,  solemn  service.  One  who  loved  those  who  were 
gone  said  that  they  died  like  good  soldiers  at  the  post 
wheie  they  had  been  stationed  by  the  word  of  the 


500      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Great  Commander,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world."  A  few 
verses  from  the  life  of  the  Master  showed  how  the  mar- 
tyrs were  simply  following  in  his  steps.  Then  we 
seemed  to  forget  the  hot  flames  of  persecution,  the  brief 
agony  of  that  transition,  and  to  see  that  great  multi- 
tude which  no  man  could  number,  clothed  with  white 
robes  and  palms  in  their  hands. 

"A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God,"  played  by  the  Ger- 
man band,  took  us  back  to  the  stormy  days  of  Luther, 
and  reminded  us  that  some  time  God  would  bring  vic- 
tory out  of  defeat,  life  out  of  death.  After  other  exer- 
cises, the  Chinese  officials  came  forward  in  the  order 
of  their  rank,  and  made  low  obeisance  before  the  shrine 
in  which  were  inscribed  the  names  of  those  whom  their 
predecessors  in  office  had  caused  to  be  put  to  death. 
Crowds  of  other  Chinese  followed,  paying  this  same 
mark  of  respect  to  the  missionaries,  to  the  nine  devoted 
Chinese  who  perished  with  them,  and  to  the  twenty- 
five  other  Christians  of  the  Presbyterian  mission  who 
later  fell  victims  to  Boxer  hate  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  and 
the  surrounding  country. 

That  same  day  we  visited  three  graves;  one  just 
outside  the  wall  of  the  American  Board  mission  in  the 
south  suburb,  hallowed  by  the  memory  of  Mr.  Pitkin, 
the  Bible-woman,  Mrs.  Tu,  and  the  little  children; 
one  close  outside  the  city  wall,  where  Miss  Morrill, 
Miss  Gould,  and  four  members  of  the  China  Inland 
mission,  had  found  a  common  grave  after  the  execu- 
tioner's knife  had  done  its  work ;  the  other  a  lonely 
grave  in  a  ditch  inside  the  city  wall  near  the  temple, 
where  Pastor  Meng  had  been  tortured  to  death,  and 
where  Miss  Morrill  and  the  other  missionaries  had 
been  imprisoned  that  first  day  of  July.  Pastor  Meng's 
only  shroud  had  been  mother  earth;  but  in  January, 
when  his  brother,  and  others  who  loved  him,  rever- 


::>    >: 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      501 

cntly  took  the  body  from  the  dishonored  grave,  they 
could  see  the  spear  wounds  in  his  head,  and  the  arms 
with  their  fingerless  hands  were  still  bound  behind  him. 
Ill  death  he  bore  branded  on  his  body  the  marks  of 
Jesus.  A  wealthy  man  who,  thou^^h  not  a  Christian, 
had  long  admired  Pastor  Meng  for  his  manliness  and 
sincerity,  asked  the  privilege  of  providing  for  him  a 
costly  coffin. 

Another  Sabbath  morning  dawned  on  the  south 
suburb,  lighting  up  the  ruins  of  the  mission  where  that 
sad  tragedy  had  been  enacted  just  nine  months  before, 
on  the  first  Sunday  in  July.  Inside  a  matting  booth 
in  a  large  inn-yard,  twenty-six  coffins  were  lying  in 
state.  On  a  banner  bearing  the  insignia  of  cross  and 
crown,  with  the  motto,  "Joyfully  bearing  the  bitter 
cross,"  were  written  the  names  of  three  missionaries 
of  the  American  Board,  forty-three  Christians  who  had 
suffered  martyrdom,  and  four  English  missionaries. 
Evergreen  wreaths  and  a  few  flowers  lay  on  the  cof- 
fins, and  in  front  were  arranged  pots  of  beautiful  flow- 
ers. This  booth  occupied  one  side  of  a  large  open 
court.  On  two  other  sides  were  booths  in  which  were 
hung  thirty-four  banners  bearing  testimonials  to  the 
dead.  "Faithful  unto  death,"  "Living  with  the  Lord," 
"Fragrance  flows  from  the  Cross,"  were  some  of  the 
sentiments  expressed.  Over  twenty  of  these  memorials 
were  inscribed  with  the  name  of  Pastor  Meng,  nearly 
all  of  which  came  from  non-Christian  friends  of  wealth 
and  standing,  from  officials,  and  merchant  guilds.  As 
we  read  the  noble  sentiments  on  these  banners  we  re- 
alized that  Pastor  ]Meng  was  one  who,  being  dead, 
yet  speaketh. 

A  hundred  white-robed  mourners  mingled  with  the 
throng  which  began  to  assemble  early  in  the  morning. 
There  was  Ti-to,  sole  survivor  of  Pastor  Meng's  fam- 


502      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

ily,  back  from  months  of  wandering  and  peril,  fol- 
lowed by  months  of  study  in  Peking.  There  was  Mr. 
Kao,  mourning  his  wife  and  Jessica.  A  woman  in  a 
white  robe,  with  a  white  band  on  her  head,  mourned  a 
husband  who,  like  herself,  spent  several  months  In  a 
noisome  prison,  and  died  soon  after  he  was  set  at  lib- 
erty. Another  of  the  martyrs  whose  name  was  on  that 
roll  of  the  Church  triumphant,  but  whose  body  had  not 
been  found  for  interment,  died  of  starvation  and  ex- 
posure after  weeks  of  hiding  in  grainfields.  All  of  the 
other  victims  had  been  cut  down  by  Boxer  knives. 
There  were  no  more  sincere  mourners  than  the  fifteen 
boarding-school  girls  whom  Miss  Morrill  and  Miss 
Gould  had  succeeded  in  sending  to  their  country  homes 
just  before  the  storm  overtook  them,  and  who,  after 
terrible  hardships  and  wonderful  deliverances,  were 
gathered  again  in  Pao  Ting  Fu.  A  young  woman,  as- 
sistant teacher  in  the  school,  told  us  how  Miss  Morrill 
knelt  with  her  in  prayer,  and  then  sent  her  away  with 
brave  exhortations  to  ''trust  and  not  be  afraid." 

The  services  held  were  similar  to  those  in  the  Pres- 
byterian mission  the  day  before,  the  dirge  played  by 
the  French  band  being  especially  beautiful.  There  was 
a  wonderful,  solemn  hush  over  the  throngs  gathered 
in  the  booths  and  in  the  open  court.  Not  a  word  was 
spoken  when  the  German  and  French  officers,  with 
bared  heads  stepped  into  the  booth  where  the  coffins 
stood.  The  same  silence  reigned  when  the  Chinese 
mandarins  and  their  suites  came  forward  and  made 
their  low.  Oriental  bows,  with  clasped  hands.  Then 
the  native  bands  began  to  play,  and  three  hundred 
bearers  came  forward  to  take  the  coffins  to  the  grave, 
and  to  carry  the  banners  in  the  procession.  In  front 
moved  the  Chinese  bands,  the  thirty-four  banners,  and 
the  gay  silk  canopies;  then  came  the  coffins,  some  of 


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CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      503 

them  in  catafalques  covered  with  rich  embroideries; 
and  near  the  coflins  walked  the  men  dressed  in  mourn- 
ing. Behind  came  twenty  or  thirty  covered  carts,  in 
which  sat  the  women.  The  long  procession  made  a 
detour  through  the  main  street  of  the  suburb.  All 
along  the  way  a  sea  of  faces  greeted  us.  Had  those 
same  faces,  now  so  impassive,  greeted  our  insulted 
friends  with  looks  of  hatred  that  other  Sabbath-day  just 
nine  months  ago?  Is  it  not  only  in  Jerusalem  that  the 
same  multitude  can  crv,  "Hosanna!"  and  "Crucify 
him!" 

We  stood  in  the  new  cemetery  just  east  of  the  ruins 
of  Mr.  Pitkin's  home  until  the  twenty-six  coffins  had 
been  lowered  into  the  graves.  We  faced  the  city  wall 
with  its  ruined  towers,  tokens  of  the  indignation  of  the 
allies  who  had  come  to  this  blood-stained  city.  Only 
the  houses  of  the  village  concealed  that  spot  where,  for 
months,  six  of  the  martyrs  lay  in  a  dishonored  grave. 
That  other  grave  was  hardly  a  stone's  throw  away.  We 
sang  in  Chinese  the  beautiful  hymn : 

•'  Light  after  darkness, 

Gain  after  loss ; 
Strength  after  weakness, 

Crown  after  cross; 
Sweet  after  bitter, 

Hope  after  fears, 
Home  after  wandering, 

Praise  after  tears. 

Near  after  distant, 

Gleam  after  gloom ; 
Love  after  loneliness, 

Life  after  tomb; 
After  long  agony, 

Rapture  of  bliss; 
Right  was  the  pathway, 

Leading  to  this." 


504      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Then,  after  prayer  and  benediction,  each  threw  a 
handful  of  earth  on  the  coffins,  and  left  the  spot  which, 
like  that  other  sepulcher  outside  a  city  wall  will  ever 
be  holy  ground. 

"The  lilies  of  peace  cover  the  terrible  fields  of  Wat- 
erloo, and  out  of  the  graves  of  our  dear  ones  there 
spring  such  flowers  of  spiritual  loveliness  as  you  and  I 
else  had  never  known." 


CHAPTER  XTII 
OUTLOOK  AND  UPLOOK 

"  The  remnant  that  is  escaped  of  the  house  of  Judah  shall 
again  take  root  downward,  and  bear  fruit  upward." 

"The  remnant," — we  have  watched  them  hiding 
away  from  "the  blast  of  the  terrible  ones."  We  have 
seen  them  standing  by  the  graves  of  their  martyred 
comrades.  Now  let  us  take  a  glimpse  of  them  "build- 
ing up  the  waste  places,  and  restoring  paths  to 
dwell  in." 

The  time  of  outward  storm  and  stress  has  passed, 
but  heart  conflicts  are  still  raging.  The  tragedy  of 
fire  and  sword  has  gone  into  history,  but  the  tragedy  of 
the  inner  life  is  being  enacted  to-day  in  thousands  of 
citips  and  towns  and  hamlet  homes.  Was  it  an  easy 
thing,  think  you,  for  a  man  to  go  back  to  the  little  vil- 
lage where  once  his  happy  home  had  been,  to  build  up 
the  desolate  ruins,  to  plant  trees  where  old  ones  had 
been  uprooted,  to  tread  on  the  soil  with  which  was  min- 
gled the  blood  or  the  ashes  of  mother,  wife,  child,  and 
not  cherish  thoughts  of  revenge  ?  Who  were  his  neigh- 
bors ?  They  were  often  the  murderers  of  his  loved  ones. 
He  saw  the  leader  in  the  massacres  in  his  vicinity  '"in 
great  power,  and  spreading  himself  like  a  green  tree 
in  its  native  soil,"  and  vainly  he  said  to  his  restless 
heart,  "Fret  not  thyself  because  of  the  man  who  bring- 
eth  wicked  devices  to  pass." 

The  conflicts  of  the  year  that  followed  the  massa- 
cres were  more  bitter  the  temptations  were  more  over- 

505 


5o6      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

whelming,  because  they  came  to  those  who  were  phys- 
ically weakened  and  mentally  benumbed  by  prolonged, 
intense  suffering.  Can  we  wonder  that  in  some  in- 
stances the  spiritual  sight  was  dimmed;  that  the  will, 
which  should  have  stood  at  the  helm  and  steered  amid 
the  rocks  and  eddies,  sometimes  folded  her  tired  arms 
and  allowed  the  storm-racked  bark  to  drift? 

It  was  so  easy,  too,  for  those  who  lived  under  the 
protection  of  the  army  of  the  allies  to  seek  revenge. 
It  was  so  easy  for  those  who  saw  soldiers  from  Chris- 
tian lands  enriching  themselves  on  every  hand,  to  say : 
"I  have  lost  my  all ;  my  enemy  has  fled ;  his  house 
stands  open.  May  I  not  go  and  search  for  the  things 
which  he  has  taken  from  my  home?  And  may  I  not 
take  a  little  more,  just  a  little,  to  help  to  make  good  my 
loss?  Others  will  take  it  if  I  do  not."  Satan  has 
lured  many  a  victim  to  destruction  with  far  less  cun- 
ning casuistry.  And  a  few  who  had  bravely  faced 
death  from  love  for  the  Master  have  been  overcome 
by  temptations  to  take  revenge  or  to  make  good  their 
losses,  without  waiting  for  the  red  tape  of  indemnity 
collections.  Thank  God  that  their  number  is  so  small, 
that  the  Church  in  China  has  stood  this  second  test 
so  nobly !  Once  before,  in  Roman  days,  the  Church 
which  had  passed  triumphantly  through  its  trial  by 
fire,  did  not  pass  unspotted  through  the  testing  which 
came  when  the  Christians  were  living  with  a  victorious 
army. 

Now  let  us  take  an  outlook  on  the  conditions  pre- 
vailing a  year  after  the  outbreak.  First  we  give  ex- 
tracts from  an  account  written  by  Mr.  Cunningham, 
of  the  Presbyterian  Board,  describing  a  ten  days'  trip 
made  in  December,  1901,  to  outstations  northeast  of 
Peking : 

"This  was  the  first  trip  made  without  a  guard  of 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      507 

American  soldiers  since  May,  1900.  .  ,  .  The  ob- 
ject of  our  trip  was  to  visit  the  Christians  in  different 
villages  where  the  persecutions  of  the  >'ear  before  had 
been  so  terrible.  .  .  .  At  \Va  Tzu  we  could 
formerly  gather  an  audience  of  thirty  or  forty  Chris- 
tians. The  few  remaining  ones  gathered  around  us,  a 
sad  company,  and  we  had  a  short  service  with  them. 
They  can  scarcely  rally  from  the  awful  shock  and  hor- 
ror of  that  summer  of  blood.  Mr.  Killie  pointed  out 
a  corner  of  the  yard  where  eleven  had  been  burned. 
In  another  place  three  had  died  in  the  same  way ;  the 
ashes  and  charred  wood  still  mark  the  spot.  In  an- 
other place  a  man  had  been  literally  boiled  m  oil.  Liv- 
ing in  these  places  of  such  horrible  memory,  and  see- 
ing those  whose  hands  are  red  with  blood  going  about 
scot-free,  is  it  strange  that  feelings  of  revenge  rise 
and  will  scarcely  down?  And  it  has  been  practically 
impossible  for  a  year  and  a  half  to  hold  any  services 
with  them.     .     .     .     Their  lot  is  a  hard  one.     ,     .     . 

** Saturday  we  visited  West  Ma  Fang,  where  we 
looked  at  the  desolate  home  of  Chang  Huang  Shun. 
He  himself  pointed  out  the  spot  where  father,  mother, 
and  sister  were  burned.  His  older  brother  was  also 
slain.    Now  he  alone  remains  of  the  family  of  five. 

^'Sunday  was  a  full  day.  About  thirty  Christians 
gathered  together,  and  we  had  preaching  and  com- 
nmnion  services.  ^lemories  of  the  year  and  a  half 
since  they  had  met  thus  together  filled  the  hearts  with 
sadness,  and  they  all  but  refused  to  be  comforted. 
.  .  .  Our  text  was  the  prayer  of  the  Master, 
'Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do/  This  is  high  ground,  but  we  can  not  afford  to 
lake  lower.  This  prayer  never  meant  so  much  to  me 
before.    Consistent  with  this  prayer,  Tou  Wei  Ch'eng,* 

^See  page  191. 


5o8      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

one  of  our  boys,  when  he  was  about  to  be  slain  at  P'ing 
Ku,  six  miles  from  where  we  were  holding  service, 
had  said :  'Men,  you  may  kill  my  body,  but  you  can  not 
harm  my  soul.  It  will  return  to  God.  I  shall  see  you 
at  the  day  of  judgment.  I  urge  you  to  repent  of  your 
sins.'    Then  praying  for  his  murderers,  he  died. 

"Monday  morning  we  left  Ma  Fang  for  the  county- 
seat,  San  Ho,  to  consult  with  the  official  about  the  in- 
terment of  those  slain  who  had  not  yet  been  buried. 
Ttiere  are  about  eighty  bodies  or  parts  of  bodies,  for 
which  we  wish  to  perform  these  sacred  rites.  We 
reached  the  place  where  Tou  Wei  Ch'eng,  spoken  of 
above,  died.  It  was  on  a  mound,  a  'place  of  the  skull,' 
outside  the  city  wall.  On  this  spot  four  young  men 
were  slain, — martyrs  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  Their 
death  seems  to  have  produced  a  profound  impression 
on  the  community.  The  ashes  of  the  funeral  pile  still 
mark  the  spot  of  the  altar  of  sacrifice.  We  gathered  up 
a  few  fragments  of  charred  bones  and  some  ashes, 
wrapped  them  up,  and  brought  them  away  with  us.  I 
spoke  to  the  crowd  who  went  out  with  us,  telling  what 
we  were  doing.  I  told  them  that  the  charred  bones 
were  not  those  of  criminals,  though  this  was  a  place  of 
execution ;  that  China  had  too  few  men  like  these,  who 
dared  to  die  for  their  faith  and  for  the  truth.  There 
was  the  greatest  respect  shown  by  all.  When  we  had 
gone  the  crowd  retired  in  small  companies,  a  number 
lingering  until  we  were  out  of  sight.  I  thought  of 
Calvary  very  many  times  that  day." 

Mr.  Webster  reports  from  the  Liao  Yang  region 
m  Manchuria: 

"On  the  whole  the  members  just  now  seem  more 
impressionable  and  more  spiritually  alive  than  ever 
before.  One  noticed  it  in  their  prayers  and  the  readi- 
ness with  which  they  took  the  spoiling  of  their  goods. 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      509 

Compensation  has  never  been  mentioned.  Services 
were  held  regularly  again  from  the  middle  of  Decem- 
ber until  they  were  interrupted  by  the  Russian  offi- 
cials in  March.  These  were  attended  with  great 
blessing. 

"The  Hai  Ch'eng  city  congregation  seems  to  have 
been  greatly  benefited  by  the  trials  through  which  it 
has  passed.  Attendance  is  about  double  what  it  was 
before  the  trouble.  The  outlying  districts  are  still  un- 
der a  cloud  and  are  cold." 

Mr.  Liddell,  of  the  London  mission,  writes  thus  of 
the  Christians  north  of  Tientsin : 

"Every  house  belonging  to  the  Christians  was  first 
looted  and  then  burned ;  thus,  on  their  retu*-n  from 
hiding-places  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  mountains,  they 
had  neither  houses  nor  clothing,  neither  food  nor 
money.  Truly  they  were  in  a  piteous  condition.  Yet 
their  letter  betrays  no  desire  for  revenge,  but  only  a 
desire  expressed  for  the  speedy  return  of  their  pastor 
to  help  them  in  their  troubles.  The  Christians  who 
were  killed  met  their  death  bravely,  and  testified  to 
their  murderers  that  their  spirits  were  beyond  the  reach 
of  man  to  harm." 

To  the  English  Methodist  Christians  in  the  Kai 
P'ing  Circuit,  we  have  the  following  testimony : 

"The  Christians,  so  far  as  I  have  had  opportunity 
of  judging  them,  are  characterized  by  very  real  devo- 
tion to  God  and  strong  attachment  to  the  Church. 
There  is  in  all  a  deep  sense  of  mercies  received  during 
the  past  year.  They  have  an  enlarged  experien:e  of 
the  providential  care  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  If  never 
before,  during  the  dreadful  weeks  of  last  summer  they 
learned  to  pray  believing,  and  to-day  they  will  tell  you 
of  signal  answers  to  their  prayers  coming  in  'the  mo- 
ments of  extreme  need.    All  this  has  made  their  faith 


510      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

stronger  and  their  hope  brighter.  .  .  .  When  men 
whose  dear  ones — fathers,  mothers,  wives,  or  children 
— have  been  brutally  murdered  for  no  other  crime  than 
that  of  being  Christians,  can  say  in  effect,  'Father,  for- 
give them ;  they  know  not  what  they  do,'  we  can  surely 
rejoice  in  the  fact  that  some  measure  of  the  Master's 
spirit  is  in  them.  Never  shall  I  forget  Mr.  Ho,  leader 
of  our  little  Church  at  Ho  Chuang,  as  he  stood  before 
the  two  mandarins  with  Mr.  Robinson  and  myself,  and 
declared  that  though  he  knew  the  murderers  of  his 
daughter,  seventeen  years  old,  he  would  not  accuse 
them  nor  ask  for  their  punishment,  preferring  to 
leave  them  to  God's  dealing,  in  the  hope  that  he  would 
lead  them  to  repentance  and  salvation." 

Even  before  the  Boxer  persecution  had  given  the 
testimony  of  thousands  of  martyr  deaths,  and  the  year 
of  temptation  that  followed  proved  that  the  Chinese 
could  live  for  Christ  as  well  as  die  for  him,  Isabella 
Bird  Bishop  gave  this  testimony : 

"After  eight  and  a  half  years  of  journeyings  among 
Asiatic  peoples,  I  say  unhesitatingly  that  the  raw  ma- 
terial out  of  which  the  Holy  Ghost  fashions  the  Chinese 
convert,  and  ofttimes  the  Chinese  martyr,  is  the  best 
stuff  in  Asia." 

Much  wood,  hay,  and  stubble  have  been  consumed ; 
but  treasured  in  heaven,  or  still  standing  where  Christ 
will  build  his  Church  in  China,  we  have  our  gold  and 
silver  and  precious  stones  in  the  loyalty,  the  steadfast- 
ness, the  triumphant  faith,  of  those  who  have  followed 
their  Master  through  wilderness  temptations  or  Cal- 
vary's agonies.  This  is  our  comfort  as  we  look  back- 
ward; it  is  our  inspiration  as  we  look  forward. 

The  political  clouds  have  not  yet  lifted  from 
China;  the  difficulties  have  not  all  vanished;  but  we 
believe  that  the  most  glorious  conquest  of  the  Chris- 


CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS      511 

tian  Church  will  be  won  in  China  within  the  next  half 
century ;  and  one  element  in  this  victory  will  be  the 
fidelity  of  the  martyrs.  A  Chinese  official  said:  "It 
was  such  a  little  thini;  which  we  asked  of  the  Chris- 
tians, only  to  speak  one  word  of  recantation  or  to  burn 
one  stick  of  incense,  yet  they  died  rather  than  do  it." 
Can  the  tens  of  thousands  who  witnessed  the  memorial 
services  ever  forget  the  impression  made  upon  them? 
Will  not  the  monuments  in  many  a  ''God's  acre"  wit- 
ness for  God  to  coming  generations?  Wherever  those 
martyr  graves  lie,  we  have  a  pledge  of  future 
possession. 

The  words  which  our  martyred  Lincoln  spoke  at 
Gettysburg  might  be  spoken  by  these  battlefields  where 
that  ''death-grapple  in  the  darkness"  saddened  the  last 
summer  of  the  nineteenth  century : 

"We  can  not  dedicate,  we  can  not  consecrate,  we 
can  not  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave  men  who  strug- 
gled here  have  consecrated  it  far  beyond  our  power 
to  add  or  to  detract.  The  world  will  little  note  nor 
long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  for- 
get what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather 
to  be  dedicated  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who 
fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is 
rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  re- 
maining before  us,  that  from  these  honored  dead  we 
take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 
vain." 

Shall  we  not  give  of  our  wealth,  of  our  sons  and 
daughters,  for  this  unfinished  work,  that  our  honored 
dead  in  China  may  not  have  died  in  vain?  Listen  to 
the  appeal  of  China's  multitudinous  people,  with  their 
pathetic  needs,  their  limitless  possibilities. 


512      CHINA'S  BOOK  OF  MARTYRS 

Looking  into  the  past,  with  its  tragic  horrors  and 
sacred  memories,  and  into  the  future,  with  its  appall- 
ing difficulties  and  bright  promise,  do  not  the  poet's 
words  vv^ell  express  the  spirit  of  the  worker  in  China? 

"  One  who  never  turned  his  back,  but  marched  breast  forward, 
Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 
Never  dreamed  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would 
triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better, 
Sleep  to  wake." 


DATE  DUE 


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